Grant: Alliance Grants

Fusion is an important step in the infection cycle of enveloped viruses. The fusion process allows the virus to fuse to the host cell membrane and deliver its genome, eventually leading to the translation of viral proteins. To date, only three classes of viral fusion proteins have been described. This is surprising, given the diverse range of viruses and the hosts that they infect. However, we have identified a unique fusion protein in a virus known to infect insects. This discovery offers an opportunity to understand a new mechanism for virus fusion and may also lend itself to applications that may be beneficial for use in biotechnology. The objectives for the proposed project include determining the structure of fusion proteins from related viruses, understanding the mechanism and steps for viral fusion, and creating a platform that can be developed for the delivery of cargo, such as nucleotide sequences or proteins, to target cells. The results will enhance our understanding of a vital pathway for virus infection and underpin a strategy to engineer the novel fusion protein. We will work on this project with collaborators at Monash University in Australia. Trainees on this project will gain valuable skills in virology, characterizing virus mutants and structural biology.