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Fenster JA, Azzinaro PA, Dinhobl M, Borca MV, Spinard E, Gladue DP. African Swine Fever Virus Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction. Viruses 2024; 16:1170. [PMID: 39066332 PMCID: PMC11281715 DOI: 10.3390/v16071170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2024] [Revised: 07/05/2024] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is an often deadly disease in swine and poses a threat to swine livestock and swine producers. With its complex genome containing more than 150 coding regions, developing effective vaccines for this virus remains a challenge due to a lack of basic knowledge about viral protein function and protein-protein interactions between viral proteins and between viral and host proteins. In this work, we identified ASFV-ASFV protein-protein interactions (PPIs) using artificial intelligence-powered protein structure prediction tools. We benchmarked our PPI identification workflow on the Vaccinia virus, a widely studied nucleocytoplasmic large DNA virus, and found that it could identify gold-standard PPIs that have been validated in vitro in a genome-wide computational screening. We applied this workflow to more than 18,000 pairwise combinations of ASFV proteins and were able to identify seventeen novel PPIs, many of which have corroborating experimental or bioinformatic evidence for their protein-protein interactions, further validating their relevance. Two protein-protein interactions, I267L and I8L, I267L__I8L, and B175L and DP79L, B175L__DP79L, are novel PPIs involving viral proteins known to modulate host immune response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A. Fenster
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA;
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
| | - Paul A. Azzinaro
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
| | - Mark Dinhobl
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
| | - Manuel V. Borca
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
| | - Edward Spinard
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
| | - Douglas P. Gladue
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Orient, NY 11957, USA; (P.A.A.); (M.D.); (E.S.)
- National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
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Giovannini I, Manfrin C, Greco S, Vincenzi J, Altiero T, Guidetti R, Giulianini P, Rebecchi L. Increasing temperature-driven changes in life history traits and gene expression of an Antarctic tardigrade species. Front Physiol 2023; 14:1258932. [PMID: 37766751 PMCID: PMC10520964 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1258932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The Antarctic region has been experiencing some of the planet's strongest climatic changes, including an expected increase of the land temperature. The potential effects of this warming trend will lead ecosystems to a risk of losing biodiversity. Antarctic mosses and lichens host different microbial groups, micro-arthropods and meiofaunal organisms (e.g., tardigrades, rotifers). The eutardigrade Acutuncus antarcticus is considered a model animal to study the effect of increasing temperature due to global warming on Antarctic terrestrial communities. In this study, life history traits and fitness of this species are analyzed by rearing specimens at two different and increasing temperatures (5°C vs. 15°C). Moreover, the first transcriptome analysis on A. antarcticus is performed, exposing adult animals to a gradual increase of temperature (5°C, 10°C, 15°C, and 20°C) to find differentially expressed genes under short- (1 day) and long-term (15 days) heat stress. Acutuncus antarcticus specimens reared at 5°C live longer (maximum life span: 686 days), reach sexual maturity later, lay more eggs (which hatch in longer time and in lower percentage) compared with animals reared at 15°C. The fitness decreases in animals belonging to the second generation at both rearing temperatures. The short-term heat exposure leads to significant changes at transcriptomic level, with 67 differentially expressed genes. Of these, 23 upregulated genes suggest alterations of mitochondrial activity and oxido-reductive processes, and two intrinsically disordered protein genes confirm their role to cope with heat stress. The long-term exposure induces alterations limited to 14 genes, and only one annotated gene is upregulated in response to both heat stresses. The decline in transcriptomic response after a long-term exposure indicates that the changes observed in the short-term are likely due to an acclimation response. Therefore, A. antarcticus could be able to cope with increasing temperature over time, including the future conditions imposed by global climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilaria Giovannini
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
| | - Chiara Manfrin
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Samuele Greco
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Joel Vincenzi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Tiziana Altiero
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
- Department of Education and Humanities, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Roberto Guidetti
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
| | - Piero Giulianini
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Lorena Rebecchi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
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Yang S, Miao C, Liu W, Zhang G, Shao J, Chang H. Structure and function of African swine fever virus proteins: Current understanding. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1043129. [PMID: 36846791 PMCID: PMC9950752 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1043129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly infectious and lethal double-stranded DNA virus that is responsible for African swine fever (ASF). ASFV was first reported in Kenya in 1921. Subsequently, ASFV has spread to countries in Western Europe, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, as well as to China in 2018. ASFV epidemics have caused serious pig industry losses around the world. Since the 1960s, much effort has been devoted to the development of an effective ASF vaccine, including the production of inactivated vaccines, attenuated live vaccines, and subunit vaccines. Progress has been made, but unfortunately, no ASF vaccine has prevented epidemic spread of the virus in pig farms. The complex ASFV structure, comprising a variety of structural and non-structural proteins, has made the development of ASF vaccines difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to fully explore the structure and function of ASFV proteins in order to develop an effective ASF vaccine. In this review, we summarize what is known about the structure and function of ASFV proteins, including the most recently published findings.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Wei Liu
- African Swine Fever Regional Laboratory of China (Lanzhou), State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Guanglei Zhang
- African Swine Fever Regional Laboratory of China (Lanzhou), State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
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