Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen that affects 170 million people worldwide. The HCV genome is an RNA molecule that is approximately 9.6 kb in length and encodes a polyprotein that is cleaved proteolytically to generate at least 10 mature viral proteins. Recently, a new HCV protein named F has been described, which is synthesized as a result of a ribosomal frameshift. Little is known about the biological properties of this protein, but the possibility that the F protein may participate in HCV morphology or replication has been raised. In this work, the presence of functional constraints in the F protein was investigated. It was found that the rate of amino acid substitutions along the F protein was significantly higher than the rate of synonymous substitutions, and comparisons involving genes that represented independent phylogenetic lineages yielded very different divergence/conservation patterns. The distribution of stop codons in the F protein across all HCV genotypes was also investigated; genotypes 2 and 3 were found to have more stop codons than genotype 1. The results of this work suggest strongly that the pattern of divergence in the F protein is not affected by functional constraints.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.80510-0 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Multi-channel spatio-temporal graph attention contrastive network for brain disease diagnosis.
Neuroimage
January 2025
College of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China; Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence Technology, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China. Electronic address:
Dynamic brain networks (DBNs) can capture the intricate connections and temporal evolution among brain regions, becoming increasingly crucial in the diagnosis of neurological disorders. However, most existing researches tend to focus on isolated brain network sequence segmented by sliding windows, and they are difficult to effectively uncover the higher-order spatio-temporal topological pattern in DBNs. Meantime, it remains a challenge to utilize the structure connectivity prior in the DBNs analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUncertainty analysis in river quality management considering failure probability: controllable and uncontrollable input pollutants.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf
January 2025
Chair of Engineering Hydrology and Water Management, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. Electronic address:
River quality management involves complex challenges due to inherent uncertainties in various parameters, especially when dealing with controllable and uncontrollable pollutants. This study integrates a finite volume approach, called SEF (symmetric exponential function), with Monte Carlo simulations in MATLAB to solve the advection-dispersion equation, focusing on evaluating river quality protection tools by considering failure probability (P). Critical specifications for maintaining reliable river ecosystem performance are identified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe human patellar tendon is mechanically homogenous at its mid-substance.
J Mech Behav Biomed Mater
December 2024
Department of Technical Physics, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
The human patellar tendon contains distinct fascicle bundles across its mediolateral and anteroposterior regions. Studies have suggested region-specific behaviour during in vivo actions, but it is unclear whether such regional differences result from localized variation in composition and mechanical properties within the tendon itself. Furthermore, the viscoelastic properties of any region of the human patellar tendon have not been well described previously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProbing the functional constraints of influenza A virus NEP by deep mutational scanning.
Cell Rep
January 2025
Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address:
The influenza A virus nuclear export protein (NEP) is a multifunctional protein that is essential for the viral life cycle and has very high sequence conservation. However, since the open reading frame of NEP largely overlaps with that of another influenza viral protein, non-structural protein 1, it is difficult to infer the functional constraints of NEP based on sequence conservation analysis. In addition, the N-terminal of NEP is structurally disordered, which further complicates the understanding of its function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCursorial ecomorphology and temporal patterns in theropod dinosaur evolution during the mid-Cretaceous.
R Soc Open Sci
January 2025
Hokkaido University Museum, Kita 10, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan.
Coelurosauria, including modern birds, represents a successful group of theropod dinosaurs that established a high taxonomic diversity and significant morphological modifications. In the evolutionary history of this group, a specialized foot morphology, the arctometatarsus, evolved independently in several lineages and has been considered an adaptation for cursoriality. While its functional significance has been extensively studied, the temporal pattern of this parallel evolution, as well as its origin and influencing factors, remains largely unresolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!