Publications by authors named "Rotem Fuchs"
Article Synopsis
- The zinc-finger antiviral protein (ZAP) plays a crucial role in innate immunity by targeting non-self nucleic acids, interacting with cofactors like TRIM25, Riplet, and KHNYN to exert its antiviral effects.
- An analysis of ZAP and its cofactors across four mammalian groups showed signs of positive selection, indicating rapid evolutionary change, particularly in intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that evolve faster than the structured parts of the proteins.
- The study suggests that phase separation (PS) may be linked to the antiviral functions of ZAP and its cofactors, with positively selected sites in these regions highlighting their importance in the ongoing evolutionary battle between hosts and viruses.
Several mammalian genes have originated from the domestication of retrotransposons, selfish mobile elements related to retroviruses. Some of the proteins encoded by these genes have maintained virus-like features; including self-processing, capsid structure formation, and the generation of different isoforms through -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting. Using quantitative approaches in molecular evolution and biophysical analyses, we studied 28 retrotransposon-derived genes, with a focus on the evolution of virus-like features.
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