Assembly of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses occurs in the cytoplasm. These viruses have to selectively package their genomic RNA (gRNA) from a pool of cellular and viral-derived RNAs. In other words, the viral capsid proteins have to select the right RNA from a heterologous RNA population.

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The Ph.D. student Mayra Colunga-Saucedo, has designed a helper/replicon cDNA system and fully infectious clones (CHIKV 181/25 with mKate2 as a reporter gene) in plasmids for mammalian expression. These plasmids allow us to study the assembly of the core and virion budding. In particular, we are interested in studying the mechanics of the budding process (collaborations with Profs. Tuli Mukhopadhyay and R. Zandi) and the role of the interactions between the glycoproteins in this process.

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Also, we are interested in understanding the electrostatic interactions that control the assembly of the CHIKV core. We are understanding these interactions by site-directed mutagenesis, phylogenetic/bioinformatic approaches, all-atom simulations, and protein-structure prediction.