Grants:

Reovirus replication factories as a new antimicrobial target

Grant agency: GACR
Identification number of grant: 22-25396S
Head of the project: RNDr. Roman Tůma (Jihočeská Universita v Českých Budějovicích, Přírodovědecká fakulta)
Vice-head of the project: Doc. RNDr. Peter Mojzeš, CSc.

Viruses are pathogens causing epidemics and outbreaks with costly consequences. Antiviral drugs represent effective treatment and outbreak control but are usually specific for a virus. We explore formation of viral replication factories (VF) as potentially conserved mechanism among dsRNA viruses of the Reoviridae family. We plan to identify key steps in the VF formation and delineate their phase behavior with respect to stages of assembly. We will use combination of in vitro biochemical and biophysical approaches together with molecular biology and cell imaging techniques that allow to probe concentration, composition, fluidity and structure of VFs. Such approach will answer questions about how VF are formed within cellular context, how and at what stage viral RNA gets recruited and replicated and whether virion assembly and release are associated with further phase transitions. By comparing our results with those obtained in collaborating labs for related rotaviruses we will be in position to generalize and identify key common steps suitable for life cycle disruption. The goal is to establish molecular mechanism underpinning formation of reoviral replication factories in infected cells as a potential therapeutic target.