Computational and Functional Analysis of the Virus-Receptor Interface Reveals Host Range Trade-Offs in New World Arenaviruses.

ABSTRACT:

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Animal viruses frequently cause zoonotic disease in humans. As these viruses are highly diverse, evaluating the threat that they pose remains a major challenge, and efficient approaches are needed to rapidly predict virus-host compatibility. Here, we develop a combined computational and experimental approach to assess the compatibility of New World arenaviruses, endemic in rodents, with the host TfR1 entry receptors of different potential new host species. Using signatures of positive selection, we identify a small motif on rodent TfR1 that conveys species specificity to the entry of viruses into cells. However, we show that mutations in this region affect the entry of each arenavirus differently. For example, a human single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in this region,

SUBMITTER: Kerr SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4645654 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature