Exploring coronavirus cell entry with functional viromics.

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Genomics
• Public Health

Background:

• Thousands of novel coronaviruses have been discovered in wildlife over the last 20 years.
• Emerging human coronaviruses often originate from cross-species transmission events involving wildlife.
• Current laboratory methods are insufficient for experimentally assessing the zoonotic potential of newly discovered viruses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce novel laboratory platforms for functional characterization of the virome.
• To address the need for methods to assess the zoonotic potential of wildlife viruses.
• To advance the field of functional viromics for better understanding of viral threats.

Main Methods:

• Development of new laboratory platforms for functional annotation of viral genomes.
• Application of these platforms to functionally characterize the virome.
• Collective term "functional viromics" used to describe these integrated approaches.

Main Results:

• Advancements in functionally annotating the virome using developed platforms.
• Demonstration of approaches to assess other viral phenotypes.
• Establishment of a foundation for improved zoonotic risk modeling.

Conclusions:

• Functional viromics provides a powerful approach to overcome laboratory limitations in viral discovery.
• These methods are crucial for assessing the zoonotic potential of emerging viruses.
• Data generated from functional viromics will enhance next-generation models for predicting zoonotic risk.