A gateway protein for norovirus

The host factors that noroviruses rely on for invasion, replication and pathogenesis, and that consequently determine the species tropism of the virus, are largely unidentified. Virgin and colleagues used CRISPR–Cas9 to perform a genome-wide screen for host factors that are required for the infection of mouse cells by murine norovirus (MNoV). Four loss-of-function mutations in a single gene (Cd300lf) were identified that enabled mouse cells to survive infection by MNoV. Additional experiments in cell lines, primary cells and in vivo confirmed that Cd300lf is specifically required for the binding and replication of MNoV, and that Cd300lf is the primary receptor for MNoV infection. Expressing murine Cd300lf in HeLa cells made these human cells permissive for infection by MNoV, thus removing the species tropism barrier of MNoV infection. Finally, structural analysis of Cd300lf, which is a cell-surface immunoglobulin domain-containing protein, revealed a putative ligand binding site in its ectodomain. See it on Scoop.it, via Viruses and Bioinformatics from Virology.uvic.ca
A gateway protein for norovirus
Source: Viral Bioinformatics