Discovery of a cellular degradation mechanism for viral PPP-RNA

We are excited to share that our manuscript was recently published in Nature Communications. You can now read about our work on the evolutionarily conserved class of Nudix hydrolases in the context of innate immunity.

We identified Nudix hydrolase 2 (NUDT2) as one key player to clear cells from viral triphosphorylated RNA (PPP-RNA). NUDT2 trims those RNAs into monophosphorylated RNA (P-RNA), which then serve as a substrate for the canonical XRN-1 degradation pathway.

This was a great collaborative effort, and we thank all our collaborators for their contributions. Congratulations to Bea, Karsten, Quirin, Line, Pietro, Sarah, and Andreas.

Read the whole story here: NUDT2 initiates viral RNA degradation by removal of 5′-phosphates

Analysis of evolutionary conserved viral nucleic acid binding proteins

We are very happy that our manuscript on evolutionary conserved viral nucleic acid binding proteins was published in Nature Communications.

It describes the most comprehensive evaluation of viral nucleic acid interactions in human, mouse and flies. We used conservation of binding properties over evolution to identify proteins that are relevant for innate immunity.

This was a great collaborative effort particularly between our laboratory and the laboratories of Jean-Luc Imler and Carine Meignin. Congratulations to Rike, Chris, Alexey, Line, Vincent, Teresa, Cathleen, Lila, Matthias & Andreas!    

Read more in the Nature Communications paper: Cross-species analysis of viral nucleic acid interacting proteins identifies TAOKs as innate immune regulators

New cGAS receptors and signalling identified in flies

Fantastic discovery by the Rune Hartmann (Aarhus) and Jean-Luc Imler (Strassbourg) Laboratories now published in Nature! They have found the two new cGAS-like receptors that generate cyclic dinucleotides. These signalling molecules activate a STING-dependent pathway and contribute to antiviral immunity in flies. Our team (Line/Karin/Andreas) have contributed mass spectrometry experiments that helped to better characterize this novel pathway. 

Great Work! Big Congrats!

Read more in the Nature paper: Two cGAS-like receptors induce antiviral immunity in Drosophila

Our multi-omics analysis of SARS-COV-2 and SARS-CoV – in Nature!

An example from our COVINET showing the regulation of PLAU upon infection, as well as its interaction with the ORF8 of CoV2.

We applied multi-omics data analysis to understand the interactions and impact of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV on the human proteome. In particular, we applied state of the art bioinformatics methods to precisely characterize what SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV do to the proteome and provide links to potential molecular mechanism leading to COVID-19. Moreover, we established an integrated database (https://covinet.innatelab.org) that allows us to search for the effect of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV infection.

 

Congratulations to this tour de force to all involved people in our lab, particularly, Alexey, Virginie, Vincent, Valter, Chris, Darya and Yiqi as well as Ozge Karayel and Matthias Mann with whom we tightly collaborated. Moreover, we thank many other contributors who were instrumental to get this over the line! 

Please read our original manuscript published in Nature:

Multilevel proteomics reveals host perturbations by SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV

Feel free to dive into the data at:

https://covinet.innatelab.org