Project description
Unravelling viral mimicry and host conflicts
Viral mimicry is an evolutionary strategy in which viruses acquire host-protein domains to manipulate cellular processes for their benefit. These viral mimics exploit the similarity to host proteins, allowing them to interact with the host’s cellular machinery. This creates a genetic conflict, as the viral interactions are advantageous to the virus but harmful to the host. However, the host’s ability to evolve defences against these mimics is limited by the risk of disrupting its own cellular functions. In this context, the ERC-funded EvoViralMimicry project will integrate structural modelling, interactomics, and evolutionary analyses. The project will map viral mimicry across proteomes, identify critical interactions, and explore the evolutionary mechanisms behind these viral-host conflicts, advancing our understanding of viral evolution.
Objective
Viral mimicry is a prevalent evolutionary mechanism for the acquisition of host-protein domains in order to hijack cellular pathways. By leveraging the similarity between the original host and the mimicked domain, the viral mimic forms interactions with host proteins. This introduces genetic conflict since these interactions are advantageous for the virus and deleterious for the host.
The host is limited in its capacity to avoid mimics because evolving to escape them can disrupt the host interactome. Elucidating the way in which hosts evolve in the face of mimicry, and the constraints placed on viral mimics, are central to understanding the evolution of genetic conflicts.
To address these questions, we will uniquely combine advanced structural modelling, comparative interactomics, evolutionary analyses and functional validations to map the functions, interactions and constraints of viral mimics and their host-interacting proteins. Specifically, we will: (1) Map the landscape of mimicry occurrence in viral proteomes to find which domains are mimicked and which viral families tend to acquire such domains, (2) Characterize the cellular interactomes of both mimics and host-mimicked domains to identify shared targets between host and mimic, and to find mimic-specific interactions, pointing to neo-functionalization, (3) Study the sequence evolution of interface residues between mimics and their host targets, and (4) Characterize evolutionary mechanisms, such as gene duplication, that may be adaptive for the host or the virus.
Using these novel techniques and integrative analyses, we will unravel the factors shaping the evolution of mimics and their resulting genetic conflicts with the host. These principles are important for understanding the evolution of mechanisms by which viruses acquire new functions, and ultimately for predicting zoonotic potential and viral emergence.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins proteomics
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology virology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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69978 Tel Aviv
Israel
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