Lab Research Focus
We are interested in understanding how viruses interact with their hosts. Specifically, how viruses alter the intracellular environment, the molecular mechanisms, and the host factors involved in viral amplification. One of the earliest steps in positive stranded RNA viral amplification is initiation of protein synthesis whereby the virus must subvert the host cell ribosomes to synthesize viral proteins. We are asking a two-pronged question: What can we learn about the viral mechanism of subversion of host ribosomes and what does this tell us about the mechanisms of translation within the host cell? We are using a dicistronic Ura3 growth assay to test various known and characterized yeast translational mutants in order to understand the mechanism of initiation and the effect of specific translation initiation factors on the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) of Cricket Paralysis Virus. We would like to understand why this IRES functions in yeast where so many other IRESes have been found not to work. Viruses are known to steal cellular mechanisms and find ways of using them to their advantage. Therefore, since this IRES functions in yeast, we would predict that there are also cellular mRNAs that utilize a similar mechanism of initiation in yeast. Using microarray chip analysis we are working to identify yeast cellular mRNAs that use a similar mechanism of translation initiation.
We are interested in identifying host cell factors that are required for viral replication. The vast body of knowledge that exists for viral replication focuses on the viral proteins that are involved in replication; however, enterovirus replication requires host cell factors. We are using various approaches to identify host cell factors involved in viral amplification including genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and genomics.
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