Biology subjects

Hoang, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Hoang, V..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

The evolution of host resistance to a virus is determined by resources, historical contingency, and time scale

Hosts can often evolve resistance to parasites (and other stressors), but such resistance is generally thought to be constrained by trade-offs with other traits. These trade-offs determine the hosts optimal resistance strategy and whether resistance cycles, diversifies, and/or is maintained in the absence of parasite. However, trade-offs are often inconsistently measured across experiments and can depend on environmental conditions. Here, we extend a selection experiment evolving resistance to viral infection under variable resource quality in the Plodia interpunctella model system to explore the evolutionary conditions leading to an incongruent earlier measurement of costless resistance. We find that environmental resource quality, historical contingency, and the time scale of selection all affect trade-offs in our long-term selection experiment. Specifically, populations selected for resistance with the dual stressor of low resource quality are slowed, but not prevented, from evolving resistance. Second, variation in starting populations or early sampled adaptations led to contingency towards context-dependent resistance. Finally, some costs to resistance observed at early time points were compensated over longer evolutionary time scales. Our work therefore informs perspectives for the predictability of adaptation and how variation in specific evolutionary conditions can alter the evolutionary trajectories of a population towards costly or costless resistance strategies.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Accessible, interactive and cloud-enabled genomic workflows integrated with the NCI Genomic Data Commons

Cancer data is widely available in repositories such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Genomic Data Commons (GDC). These datasets could serve as controls or comparisons in compendium analyses with user data, avoiding the expense and time of generating additional datasets. However, the user must be able to process their new data in the same manner for these comparisons to be useful. This can be non-trivial. Although the executables themselves are usually available in repositories, the GDC pipelines that describe that entire analysis workflow are currently published as text-based standard operating procedures (SOPs). It is difficult to document a computational workflow to the level of detail and accuracy required to reproduce the results. Discrepancies between versions and exclusions of details accumulate as the documentation inevitably lags behind code revisions. We address this problem by converting the SOPs into a downloadable and executable format. Specifically, we converted the GDC DNA sequencing (DNA-Seq) and the GDC mRNA sequencing (mRNA-Seq) SOPs into reproducible, self-installing, containerized, and interactive graphical workflows. These can be applied to reproducibly process user data and to harmonize datasets across repositories. Using our publicly available graphical workflows, we harmonize raw RNA-Seq datasets from the GDC and the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project that were originally processed using different methodologies to illustrate the importance of uniform processing of control and treatment data for accurate inference of differentially expressed genes. By disseminating the analytical methodology in a reproducible and easily executed form, we greatly increase the utility of the GDC by enabling researchers to uniformly process custom data and datasets across multiple repositories to enhance data interpretation. Our approach and open-source executable workflows of making the analytical process as readily available as the data can be applied to other data repositories to increase their impact on scientific research.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2022

Zika virus NS4A hijacks host ANKLE2 to promote viral replication

Zika virus (ZIKV) is infamous among flaviviruses for its unique association with congenital birth defects, notably microcephaly. We previously mapped ZIKV-host protein interactions and identified the interaction between ZIKV NS4A and host ANKLE2, which itself has established ties to congenital microcephaly. In fruit flies, NS4A induces microcephaly phenotypes in an ANKLE2-dependent manner. This suggests that NS4A interacts with ANKLE2 to dysregulate cell behavior and contributes to abnormal host neurodevelopment. Here, we explore the role of ANKLE2 in ZIKV replication to understand the biological significance of the interaction from the viral perspective. We show that knockdown of ANKLE2 reduces replication of two ZIKV strains, across multiple MOIs and timepoints. We observe that localization of ANKLE2 is drastically shifted to sites of NS4A accumulation during infection. We investigate which domains of ANKLE2 mediate this behavior and the interaction with NS4A. Using co-immunoprecipitation, we show that deletion of either the transmembrane or LEM domain has little impact on the interaction, but deletion of both significantly reduces interaction with NS4A. We show that the C-terminal transmembrane domains of NS4A stabilize the interaction with ANKLE2. Finally, we explore this interaction in other flaviviruses and observe ANKLE2 interacts with NS4A across four additional mosquito-borne flaviviruses. Together, these results suggest NS4A interacts with ANKLE2 through a combination of its transmembrane and LEM domains, bringing it to sites of ZIKV replication to promote replication through an unknown mechanism. Taken together with our previous results, our findings indicate that, in the process of hijacking ANKLE2 for replication, ZIKV disrupts its physiological function to cause disease. ImportanceThe ZIKV epidemic led to the astonishing revelation that congenital ZIKV infection is associated with devastating birth defects, including microcephaly. Microcephaly is the condition in which head and brain size are severely reduced, and is often accompanied by intellectual disability. The molecular mechanisms by which ZIKV replicates and causes microcephaly are still incompletely understood. We previously identified the protein interaction between ZIKV NS4A and host ANKLE2, which is associated with congenital microcephaly. In flies, NS4A induces microcephaly in an ANKLE2-dependent manner, suggesting this interaction is crucial for ZIKV pathogenesis. Here, we explore the relevance of this physical interaction for virus replication. We find that ANKLE2 promotes ZIKV replication, concentrates at sites of NS4A accumulation during infection, and interacts with NS4A via its N-terminal domain. Thus, this represents a rare example of a ZIKV-host protein interaction that impacts both disease and virus replication.

molecular biology↗