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This dissertation, "Molecular Dissection of Dengue Virus Egress: Involvement of Host Cellular Factors-KDEL Receptors" by Mingyuan, Li,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: The life cycle of enveloped viruses is a complex process relying on specific interactions with host factors that, in turn, represent potential targets for interfering with viral replication and pathogenesis. Although the molecular identity of cellular receptors involved in virion entry has been established for many viruses, few studies have investigated whether host proteins on intracellular compartments may function as receptors to facilitate viral trafficking and release from infected cells. In particular, viral-host interactions during dengue virus (DENV) egress are still poorly characterized and most cellular targets identified in high-throughput screens have not been mapped to the secretory pathway. DENV structural glycoproteins, pre-membrane (prM) and envelope (E), are sufficient to assemble native Recombinant Subviral Particles (RSPs) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Newly formed RSPs mimic nascent virions and traffic through the secretory pathway, where they are processed into mature particles, before being released from cells. This study demonstrated that DENV requires host KDEL receptors (KDELRs), which cycle between the ER and Golgi apparatus to retrieve resident ER proteins, for vesicular transport from ER to Golgi. Depletion of KDELRs by siRNA reduced egress of both DENV progeny virions and RSPs produced in stable cell lines expressing prM and E. A direct interaction between KDELRs and DENV prM was dem