Possible Hidden Physicochemical Properties and PTMs' role in Cross-Species Transmission

Overview

Viral zoonotic diseases pose major challenges in epidemiology due to their lack of transmission predictability. These diseases often lead to global outbreaks. There have been past studies that suggest patterns connecting viral zoonoses, primarily in phylogenetics, but few have investigated the first part of infection: viral attachment. The project’s objective is to observe virus attachment proteins to identify common patterns for potential use in early vaccine design prioritization. Fifty zoonotic virus attachment proteins were compared in cysteine content, N-linked glycosylation sites, relative mutability, and hydropathy, along with MSA alignment. The results showed high variability across most analysis methods. However, in relative mutability, the content maximum value frequency was 241.6% higher than the minimum frequency, suggesting the sequences consist of highly mutative residues, which may explain sequence diversity. Even though these proteins do not present signature patterns, they are greatly mutable for virus adaptation to their new receptor.

Awards (2)

• Bronze Medal
• Selected for CWSF 2026

Competition history

• CWSF 2026 Curiosity & Ingenuity

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