An effective virus must successfully attach to a receptor on a host cell and inject its genetic material into the cell so that new viruses can be produced. Its ability to infect the host cell is highly dependent on both the binding capability of its capsid proteins as well their ability to modify their conformation …
Viruses are the most common entities on Earth, outnumbering bacteria by around an order of magnitude, and animals/plants by another order of magnitude. Viruses are also the least well understood group in terms of diversity, function, and evolution. The goal of my project is to explore how viruses can exploit new hosts. Extrapolating what we …