Viral Genome - Science topic

Numerous HIV related outcomes can be determined on the viral genome, for example, resistance associated mutations, population transmission dynamics, viral heritability traits, or time since infection. Viral sequences of people with HIV (PWH) are therefore essential for therapeutic and research purposes. While in the first three decades of the HIV p...

Vibrio is a prevalent marine bacteria, distinguished by their remarkable genomic flexibility. Although Vibrio neocaledonicus is well known for effectively inhibiting carbon steel corrosion, nothing is known about its viruses. This study identified a new lytic vibriophage vB_VneS_S3. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that vB_VneS_S3 i...

Abstract: Cetacean morbillivirus (CeMV) is a major threat to cetaceans worldwide, causing individual deaths and outbreaks of mass mortality. Based on partial sequences of the viral phosphoprotein, CeMV is subclassified into seven strains and two distinct lineages. To date, only CeMV-1 strains, including the dolphin morbillivirus (DMV), have been co...

The escalating challenges of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens have necessitated the exploration of alternative therapeutic strategies. Among these, bacteriophage therapy has regained attention as a promising approach to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and lyse specific bacterial strains, makin...

Motivation: Constructing and studying reference-free pangenome variation graphs can support new insights into viral genomic diversity. Interpreting the information arising from this is challenging, so automating this to allow exploratory investigations for optimisation is essential. To address this gap, we developed an easily deployable pipeline to...

Background Urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a significant public health concern. The increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics has led to a renewed focus on investigating other strategies, such as bacteriophages, to target specific pathogenic bacteria and prevent future resistance. Results This st...

A new polerovirus, designated as "ageratum virus 3" (AgV3), was detected in an Ageratum conyzoides plant in China. The complete genome sequence of AgV3 was determined using high-throughput sequencing, rapid amplification of cDNA ends, and Sanger sequencing of RT-PCR fragments. The organization of its single-stranded RNA genome of 5,652 nucleotides...

Background Tomato leaf curl viral disease (ToLCV) is a major biotic stress, threatening tomato cultivation. However, limited information exists on the prevalence and diversity of ToLCV in Tamil Nadu, India and hence this study focused on identifying and characterizing such begomoviruses. Methods and results Tomato samples with infected symptoms we...

In this study, we isolated a novel double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) mycovirus from the phytopathogenic fungus Colletotrichum cliviicola, designated as "Colletotrichum cliviicola partitivirus 1" (CcPV1). The complete genome of CcPV1 comprises two dsRNA fragments, referred to as dsRNA1 and dsRNA2, which are 1,756 bp and 1,485 bp in length, respectively. E...

Here, we isolated two novel mycoviruses coinfecting the fugus Colletotrichum karstii, which were designated as "Colletotrichum karstii mitovirus 1" (CkMV1) and "Colletotrichum karstii mitovirus 2" (CkMV2). The length of the complete genome of CkMV1 is 2,441 nucleotides, and that of CkMV2 is 2,391 nucleotides. Both contain a single open reading fram...

With the global rise of antimicrobial resistance, phage therapy is increasingly re-gaining traction as a strategy to treat bacterial infections. For phage therapy to be successful however, we first need to isolate appropriate candidate phages for both clinical and experimental research. Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen known for...

The rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic was characterized by the fixation of a plethora of mutations, many of which enable the virus to evade host resistance, likely altering the virus’ genome compositional structure (i.e., the arrangement of compositional domains of varying lengths and nucleotide frequencies within the genome). To ex...

Latency is a common strategy in a wide range of viral lineages, but its prevalence in giant viruses remains unknown. Here we describe a 617 kbp integrated giant viral element in the model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . We resolve the integrated viral genome using long-read sequencing, identify a putative polinton-like integrase, and show th...

Plant-infecting viruses spread through their hosts by transporting their infectious genomes through intercellular nano-channels called plasmodesmata. This process is mediated by virus-encoded movement proteins. Whilst the sub-cellular localisations of movement proteins have been intensively studied, live-cell RNA imaging systems have so far not bee...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute respiratory illness, especially in children, immunocompromised patients, and the elderly. Genomic surveillance of RSV enables detecting and monitoring of circulating lineages and the emergence of amino acid substitutions affecting transmission, severity, and treatment, including resistan...

Abuse of antibiotics has led to increased rates of resistance in extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and an acceleration in the emergence of drug-resistant strains, which can have serious consequences for nosocomial infections. In this study, phage MY02, which infects ESBL-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, was iso...

Adenoviruses are human pathogens that, more recently have gathered interest as tools for human gene therapy and vaccination. During their replication, adenoviruses undergo a critical maturation step culminating in the infectious particle. While the structural changes in the adenovirus protein shell during maturation have been subject to previous re...

Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is a Gram-negative bacterium that commonly resides in the human gastrointestinal tract and can also act as an opportunistic pathogen and cause extra-intestinal infections. KP poses a global health threat because it causes both hospital- and community-acquired infections in immune-competent and immunocompromised hosts. The...

Although positive- and negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses are ubiquitous in nature, there is currently no evidence of recombination or reassortment between viruses with these two major forms of genome organization. Here, we describe the discovery of brine shrimp virga-like virus 1 (BSVV1), a novel positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus wi...

In the absence of treatment, detection of pathogenic RNA viruses and quarantine of infected individuals are critical for controlling the infection spread. Conventional antibody‐based methods often lack the required accuracy and sensitivity, due to the need for a substantial amount of viral antigens. Similarly, traditional reverse transcription real...

Research on bacteriophages, the viruses infecting bacteria, has fueled the development of modern molecular biology and inspired their therapeutic application to combat bacterial multidrug resistance. However, most work has so far focused on a few model phages which impedes direct applications of these findings in clinics and suggests that a vast po...

Elephant hemorrhagic disease (EHD), caused by several Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHV), represents a frequently lethal syndrome, affecting both captive and free-living elephants. In the summer of 2022, three young Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) succumbed to EHD in a zoo in Switzerland, despite considerable preventive efforts and ea...

Two types of CRISPR/Cas systems (Cas9 and Cas13) have been used to combat eukaryotic viruses successfully. In this study, we established resistance to the DNA virus BSCTV and RNA virus TMV in Nicotiana benthamiana using the CRISPR‐Cas12a multiplex gene editing system. We employed two effector proteins LbCas12a and FnCas12a coupled with six guide RN...

Groundnut bud necrosis orthotospovirus (GBNV), a tripartite single-stranded RNA virus, poses a significant threat to United States agriculture. GBNV is a quarantine pathogen, and its introduction could lead to severe damage to economically important crops, such as groundnuts, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, and soybeans. For the rapid and accurate detect...

Plant viruses participate as biotrophic parasites in complex interactions with their hosts, resulting in the regulation of a diverse range of chloroplast/mitochondria-related genes that are essential for mediating immune responses. In this study, integrative systems biology approaches were applied to identify chloroplast/mitochondrial genes during...

Viral infections represent a global health threat, causing three million deaths annually. Antiviral strategies primarily target viral genome replication or prevent virus entry into host cells. While most FDA-approved antiviral drugs are small chemical molecules, protein-based therapies like monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) offer advantages such as broa...

During replication of some RNA viruses, defective particles can spontaneously arise and interfere with wild-type (WT) virus replication. Recently, engineered versions of these defective interfering particles (DIPs) have been proposed as an HIV-1 therapeutic. However, DIPs have yet to be reported in people with HIV-1 (PWH). Here, we find DIPs in PWH...

Background Over the years the spread of HIV-1 across the globe resulted in the creation of multiple subtypes and new recombinant forms (RFs). While the pol gene region of the HIV-1 genome is used for resistance mutations analysis and initial detection of RFs, whole genome sequencing analysis is required to determine recombination events across the...

Copyback viral genomes (cbVGs) are truncated viral genomes with complementary ends produced when the viral negative-sense RNA virus polymerase detaches from the replication template and resumes elongation from the nascent strand. Despite advances in methods to identify cbVGs based on the site of polymerase break and rejoin, PCR-based tools cannot p...

Coral reefs have experienced extensive coral loss and shifts in community composition worldwide. Despite this, some coral species appear naturally more resistant, such as Madracis mirabilis (herein Madracis ). Madracis has emerged as the dominant hard coral in Curaçao, comprising 26% of coral cover in reefs that declined by 78% between 1973 and 201...

Recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) vectors are promising for their safety and sustained expression of genetic payloads across various tissues. These vectors consist of a protein capsid enclosing a 4.7 kb single-stranded DNA genome. Rapid and accurate determination of the physical titers of rAAV vector is crucial for quality control in rAA...

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) replication requires deregulation of host DNA damage response (DDR) and inflammatory pathways. DNA topoisomerase 2β (Top2β) was previously shown to promote HPV replication, while the function of its paralog Top2α in the viral life cycle remains unknown. Elevated levels of Top2α are consistently observed in cervi...

Tailed bacteriophages are one of the most numerous and diverse group of viruses. They store their genome at quasi-crystalline densities in capsids built from multiple copies of proteins adopting the HK97-fold. The high density of the genome exerts an internal pressure, requiring a maturation process that reinforces their capsids. However, it is unc...

Stress granules (SGs) are membrane-less organelles forming in the cytoplasm in response to various types of stress, including viral infection. SGs and SG-associated proteins can play either a proviral role, by facilitating viral replication, or an antiviral role, by limiting the translation capacity, sequestering viral RNA, or contributing to the i...

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) are a health priority, especially in countries with limited resources. They are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, especially among children and the elderly. In Senegal, the endemic circulation of respiratory viruses other than influenza has been demonstrated. However, there is a paucity of data exploring t...

Phages infecting anaerobic bacteria are highly abundant in the mammalian gut, but their biology and ecological impact are poorly understood. A new PLOS Biology study provides a glimpse into the disruptive biology of the Hankyphages, parasites of the ubiquitous Bacteroidaceae.

While SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have shown strong efficacy, the continued emergence of new viral variants raises concerns about the ongoing and future public health impact of COVID-19, especially in locations with suboptimal vaccination uptake. We investigated viral and host factors, including vaccination status, that were associated with SARS-CoV-2 dise...

Human norovirus is a pervasive pathogen that causes global outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis. Previous studies have suggested that histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) can interact with human norovirus, facilitating its entry of host cells and significantly affecting its evolution. In this study, the complete genome sequence of recombinant GII.13[P2...

APOBEC3 family proteins are critical host factors that counteract and prevent the replication of retroviruses and other viruses through cytidine deamination. Human APOBEC3 proteins inactivate HIV-1 through the introduction of lethal mutations to viral genomes. In contrast, mouse APOBEC3 does not induce DNA hypermutation of murine retroviruses, alth...

The Gamma and Delta variants of concern (VOCs) of SARS‐CoV‐2 drove the second and third wave in Brazil and significantly intensified the number of cases and deaths. In this study, we investigate the timeline and origins of the Gamma and Delta variants using a spatiotemporal analysis based on 1508 genomes collected between March and September 2021 f...

Advances in metagenomics have led to the identification of new intestinal temperate bacteriophages. However, their experimental characterization remains challenging due to a limited understanding of their lysogenic-lytic cycle and the common lack of plaque formation in vitro. In this study, we investigated the hankyphage, a widespread transposable...

Marek’s virus disease (MDV) is an important avian disease of tumorigenesis nature, immunosuppression outcome, and significant economic impacts. The disease is controlled by mass vaccination supported with good management practices that restrict tumor formation. However, these practices failed in controlling virus spread which continues to evolve an...

During past decade, with the rapid advancement of next-generation sequencing techniques, whole genome sequencing has become more robust, cost effective, high-throughput, accurate and sophisticated, which enabled scientific community to access the comprehensive genome wide data to assemble and analyze the whole genome. Due to advanced whole genome s...

The success of the poliovirus (PV) vaccines has enabled the near-eradication of wild PV, however, their continued use post-eradication poses concerns, due to the potential for virus escape during vaccine manufacture. Recombinant virus-like particles (VLPs) that lack the viral genome remove this risk. Here, we demonstrate the production of PV VLPs f...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been driven by SARS-CoV-2 variants with enhanced transmission and immune escape. Apart from extensive evolution in the Spike protein, non-Spike mutations are accumulating across the entire viral genome and their functional impact is not well understood. To address the contribution of these mutations, we reconstructed genom...

The gut microbiome, composed of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, plays a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of human health. Emerging evidence suggests that microbiome disruptions can have far-reaching implications, ranging from the development of inflammatory diseases and cancer to metabolic disorders. Bacteriophages, or “phages”, are v...

Viral infections continue to pose significant global health challenges, contributing to high morbidity and mortality rates, as seen in diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2. Despite advancements in antiviral therapies, conventional treatment strategies face critical limitations, including drug resistance, systemic toxicity...

Viral genomics is an interesting and challenging field of science. The vast amount of data, coupled with the intrinsic variability of viruses, demands robust data management and computational methods that support domain experts in studying this complex domain. This Chapter addresses the demand for data and knowledge integration as a way to analyse...

For replication, viruses exploit the host cell metabolism for biosynthesis of viral components. Recently, we could show that inhibition of glycolysis interfered with IAV replication by impairing the regulation of the viral polymerase as a transcriptase or replicase. Here, we investigated how IAV replication and polymerase regulation is influenced b...

SMC5/6 is unique amongst the Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes in its ability to repress transcription from extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA), including viral genomes and plasmids. Previously, we showed that human SMC5/6 is regulated by two mutually exclusive subcomplexes-SIMC1-SLF2 and SLF1/2-the counterparts of yeast Nse5/...

Giant viruses are extraordinary members of the virosphere due to their structural complexity and high diversity in gene content. Haptophytes are ecologically important primary producers in the ocean, and all known viruses that infect haptophytes are giant viruses. However, little is known about the specifics of their infection cycles and the respon...

Antibiotics are no longer adequate to address the threat of antibiotic resistance, especially in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, and other Gram-negative pathogens that pose a serious threat to human health worldwide. The antibiotic resistance pandemic has brought about a need to search for new antimicrobials as al...

Viral proteins can aggregate into granules within host cells, known as viral factories, or viroplasms, which play a pivotal role in facilitating viral replication and shielding the viral genome from cellular defense mechanisms. Rice stripe mosaic virus (RSMV), a plant cytorhabdovirus, is notorious for causing significant damage to rice production....

The 2019 pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 led to millions of deaths worldwide since its emergence. The viral genomic material can code structural and non-structural proteins including the main protease or 3CLpro, a cysteine protease that cleavages the viral polyprotein generating 11 proteins that participate in viral...

Wheat leaf rust is caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Puccinia triticina f. sp. tritici, which seriously affects wheat production. In this study, a novel mitovirus was identified in Puccinia triticina strain HN-1 and designated as "Puccinia triticina mitovirus 1" (PtMV1). The genome of PtMV1 consists of a single RNA molecule with a length of...

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) is a prevalent DNA virus with a major impact on human health. The HSV-1 genome is assembled into silenced stable chromatin and minimally transcribed during latent infection in neurons or assembled into permissive highly dynamic chromatin and highly transcribed during lytic infection in non-neuronal cells. It is unclea...

Viruses assigned to the realm Adnaviria have linear, dsDNA genomes in which the DNA is structured in the A-form rather than the usual B-form. Virions are flexible or rigid filaments, with or without envelopes. Adnavirians share homologous major capsid proteins (MCPs) with a distinct α -helical structural fold not observed in other known viruses. Th...

The West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus of the Flaviviridae family that is transmitted through the mosquito-migratory bird-mosquito cycle. Currently, WNV infection is widespread in the Americas, Europe, and Africa, and is one of the most important global epidemic infectious diseases. Although migratory birds play an important role in th...

We detected yellow fever virus in Haemagogus mosquitoes collected in 2022 in an Amazon rainforest bordering Manaus, Brazil. The viral genome sequence occupied a basal position within the South American I genotype 1E lineage. Our findings reinforce the Amazon Basin as a source for yellow fever virus re-emergence.

African swine fever is a highly lethal disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), posing a significant threat to the global pig industry, wherease no approved treatments are currently available. The ASFV DNA-binding protein, pA104R, plays a critical role in viral genome packaging and replication, making it a key target for drug discove...

Background The gut viral community has been increasingly recognized for its role in human physiology and health; however, our understanding of its genetic makeup, functional potential, and disease associations remains incomplete. Methods In this study, we collected 11,286 bulk or viral metagenomes from fecal samples across large-scale Chinese popu...

The baculovirus expression vector system, known for its protein production in insect cells and has been criticized for its relatively low expression capacity. IE0/IE1, acknowledged vital early regulators of baculovirus, are indispensable for the virus proliferation and regulate the expression of various genes within the virus. Prior research has re...

Bats are reservoirs for numerous viruses that cause serious diseases in other animals and humans. Several mechanisms are proposed to contribute to the tolerance of bats to these pathogens. This study investigates the response of bat cells to double-stranded RNA generated by SARS-CoV-2 replication. Here, we found the involvement of Dicer in the proc...

The current clinical management of SARS-CoV-2 disease control and immunity may be not optimal anymore. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of genomic viral RNA is broadly used for diagnosis, even though the virus may still be detectable when it is already non-infectious. Regarding serology, commercial assays mostly still rely o...

African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boars, caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). ASFV exhibits highly restricted cell tropism, primarily targeting porcine macrophages for efficient and stable replication. This strict requirement for a specific cell type has posed significant challenges in...

Influenza A virus is a major human pathogen, and its replication is widely studied. One important aspect for effective virus propagation is the host cell, since cellular properties can limit or favor virus entry, viral genome and viral protein synthesis and virus release. To establish detailed mathematical models for these processes, quantitative e...

The AI revolution is reshaping global health by enabling the prediction and management of emerging disease outbreaks with unprecedented precision. Artificial intelligence leverages vast datasets from diverse sources—such as satellite imagery, social media, and genomic sequencing—to identify patterns that signal potential health threats. Machine lea...

A novel single-stranded (+ss) RNA mycovirus, designated as "Magnaporthe oryzae botourmiavirus 14" (MoBV14), was identified in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae isolate ES155. The viral genome is 2,336 nucleotides in length and contains a single open reading frame (ORF) that is predicted to encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). Genom...

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) allows for the rapid targeting of gene expression and has been instrumental in characterizing plant genes. However, foreign sequences inserted into VIGS vectors are rarely maintained for unknown reasons. Citrus yellow vein-associated umbravirus-like virus (CY1) with its solved secondary structure was converted in...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had varying impacts across different regions, necessitating localised data-driven responses. SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in a person in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and spread globally within three months. While there were similarities in the pandemic’s impact across regions, key differences motivated systematic quan...

More than 20 years after the discovery of the first anelloviruses (AVs), they still remain a mysterious group of viruses. To date, there is no clear understanding of their impact on the host organism, although information is emerging about their participation in various pathologies. Unfortunately, the widespread distribution of AVs makes it difficu...

A hallmark of the dengue virus (DENV) infection is the manipulation of host cell membranes, lipid trafficking and lipid droplets (LDs), all cellular functions that depend on the cytoskeleton and the cytoplasmatic streaming system. We previously reported the interaction between DENV NS1 protein and members of the kinesin motor complex in the Aedes a...

Background Arctic soils are climate-critical areas, where microorganisms play crucial roles in nutrient cycling processes. Acidobacteriota are phylogenetically and physiologically diverse bacteria that are abundant and active in Arctic tundra soils. Still, surprisingly little is known about acidobacterial viruses in general and those residing in th...

Severe epidemic outbreaks of diseases associated with newly emerging strains of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses have led to serious economic losses of numerous important food crops. While the current mitigation strategies are mostly relying on the deployment of genetic resistance in crop varieties, the constantly evolving virus populations have...

There is an urgent need for early detection and comprehensive surveillance of respiratory pathogens. Environmental surveillance may be key to timely responses for newly emerging pathogens and infections that are unreported or underreported. Here, we employed air sampling in a large urban hospital. Air samples (n=358) were collected weekly at five l...