Deep Mutational Scanning Comprehensively Maps How Zika Envelope Protein Mutations Affect Viral Growth and Antibody Escape.

Functional constraints on viral proteins are often assessed by examining sequence conservation among natural strains, but this approach is relatively ineffective for Zika virus because all known sequences are highly similar. Here, we take an alternative approach to map functional constraints on Zika virus's envelope (E) protein by using deep mutational scanning to measure how all amino acid mutations to the E protein affect viral growth in cell culture. The resulting sequence-function map is consistent with existing knowledge about E protein structure and function but also provides insight into mutation-level constraints in many regions of the protein that have not been well characterized in prior functional work.

Pyrobaculum igneiluti sp. nov., a novel anaerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon that reduces thiosulfate and ferric iron.

A novel anaerobic, hyperthermophilic archaeon was isolated from a mud volcano in the Salton Sea geothermal system in southern California, USA. The isolate, named strain 521T, grew optimally at 90 °C, at pH 5.5-7.