The dinucleotide composition of the Zika virus genome is shaped by conflicting evolutionary pressures in mammalian hosts and mosquito vectors.

ABSTRACT: Most vertebrate RNA viruses show pervasive suppression of CpG and UpA dinucleotides, closely resembling the dinucleotide composition of host cell transcriptomes. In contrast, CpG suppression is absent in both invertebrate mRNA and RNA viruses that exclusively infect arthropods. Arthropod-borne (arbo) viruses are transmitted between vertebrate hosts by invertebrate vectors and thus encounter potentially conflicting evolutionary pressures in the different cytoplasmic environments. Using a newly developed Zika virus (ZIKV) model, we have investigated how demands for CpG suppression in vertebrate cells can be reconciled with potentially quite different compositional requirements in invertebrates and how this affects ZIKV replication and transmission. Mutant viruses with synonymously elevated C

SUBMITTER: Fros JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8084339 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature