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An Endogenous Accelerator for Viral Gene Expression Confers a Fitness Advantage

CNMS Staff Science Highlight. An Endogenous Accelerator for Viral Gene Expression Confers a Fitness Advantage. Scientific Achievement

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An Endogenous Accelerator for Viral Gene Expression Confers a Fitness Advantage

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  1. CNMS Staff Science Highlight An Endogenous Accelerator for Viral Gene Expression Confers a Fitness Advantage • Scientific Achievement • A viral strategy for achieving complex function using simple and compact molecular strategies was discovered in the human cytomegalovirus (CMV). This biological strategy uses a non-linear negative feedback mechanism to achieve an accelerator function – larger stimulus leads to faster response with no change final steady-state response. The accelerator was found to confer a fitness advantage to the virus. #5 1.4 nm • Significance • Viruses are nature’s nanomachines that have evolved mechanisms for packing a lot of function into a very small space. These strategies provide inspiration for the construction of synthetic complex nanoscale systems. • Research Details • The expression of the MIEP gene circuit in CMV was followed after various levels of excitation with an exogenous inducer. • Great levels of induction led to faster response, but no change in steady-state levels. • Modeling and simulation was used to demonstrate that this accelerator function arose from a molecular non-linear negative feedback mechanism. Top left: Two types of signal processing circuits – an amplifier, which responds to larger input stimulus with a larger steady-state output; and a accelerator, which responds to a larger input stimulus with a faster rise to an unaltered steady-state. Top right: We found the accelerator circuit in cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Bottom: discovered that this complex function was compactly realized in a single gene non-linear negative feedback arrangement. M. W. Teng, C. Bolovan-Fritts, R. D. Dar, A. Womack, M. L. Simpson, T. Shenk, L. S. Weinberger Cell151,1569 (2012)

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