Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

There have never been performed any chemical analysis of sub-viral agents RNA (e.g. HDV, viroids, virusoids). As these RNA containing particles represent the frontier of life, the basic question “What chemical RNA modification, if any, is necessary for these particles to be spread, infectious, stable and/or replicated?” should be addressed.  The task of this work will be to provide detail analysis of RNA modification of certain plant viruses, their satellite viruses and human HDV. We will employ UPLC/MS technique and new methods of chemical biology to profile RNA modification in combination with next-generation sequencing.

Relevant publications:
[1] Chen, Y., Kowtoniuk, W., Agarwal, I., Shen, Y. & Liu, D. Nat. Chem. Biol. 5, 879–881 (2009).
[2] Kowtoniuk, W., Shen, Y., Heemstra, J., Agarwal, I. & Liu, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 7768–7773 (2009).
[3] Cahová, H., Winz, M.-L., Höfer, K., Nübel, G. & Jäschke, A. Nature 519, 374-377 (2014).
[4] Hu, C.-C., Hsu, Y.-H., Lin, N.-S. Viruses 1, 1325-1350 (2009).
[5] Taylor, J.M. Virology 344, 71-76 (2006).