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The evolutionary dynamics between viral mimics and host proteins.

Rotem Fuchs1, Ofir Schor1, Bar Naim1

  • 1Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel.

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Summary

Viral mimicry challenges host defense, but host proteins remain conserved due to functional constraints. Viral mimics evolve slowly, revealing limited host escape and exploiting evolutionary constraints in host-virus interactions.

Keywords:
Host-Virus InteractionsMolecular MimicryProtein-Protein InteractionsStructural modelingVirus Evolution

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Virology
  • Structural biology

Background:

  • Viral proteins mimic host proteins to disrupt cellular functions for replication.
  • Host organisms face challenges in distinguishing viral mimics from essential host proteins.
  • The evolutionary dynamics of host-virus mimicry are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary dynamics between host proteins and viral mimics.
  • To understand how host proteins evolve under the pressure of viral mimicry.
  • To explore the constraints on host-virus interaction network evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Integration of structural modeling and host-virus interaction networks.
  • Comprehensive evolutionary analyses of host and viral proteins.
  • Analysis of residue evolution at host-virus interaction interfaces.

Main Results:

  • Host proteins targeted by mimics and host-mimicked proteins are highly conserved due to functional constraints.
  • Host interface residues interacting with both mimics and host proteins evolve slowly.
  • Residues interacting exclusively with mimics evolve faster, while viral mimics show complex, not rapid, evolution.

Conclusions:

  • Hosts have a limited capacity to escape viral mimicry.
  • Viral evolution exploits host constraints, leading to slow evolution of interaction networks.
  • Functional constraints significantly shape host-virus co-evolutionary dynamics.