Browsing by Author "Hossain, Md Shakhawat"

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    Cross-protection from St. Louis encephalitis virus and Usutu virus disease by human West Nile virus convalescent plasma in mice
    Hossain, Md Shakhawat (Virginia Tech, 2024-08-21)
    West Nile virus (WNV), Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), and Usutu virus (USUV) are emerging mosquito-borne flaviviruses. These viruses are phylogenetically closely related and belong to the Japanese encephalitis serocomplex group. Similar to other flaviviruses, these viruses are enveloped, with genomes comprising positive-sense, single-stranded RNA approximately 11 kb in length. Upon translation, a single polyprotein is produced, consisting of three structural and seven non-structural proteins. These proteins function in virus binding to the cell membrane, entry into cells, replication, immune evasion, and the production of new virus progeny. Typically, these viruses are maintained in a sylvatic cycle involving avian hosts, such as passerine birds, and mosquitoes. However, they can accidentally spill over to humans through mosquito bites or wildlife exposure. Although humans generally remain asymptomatic and do not support sufficient viral replication for transmission, they can develop febrile disease and, in some cases, severe neuroinvasive diseases, especially among the elderly or immunocompromised individuals. Due to their co-circulation in the same geographical areas and sharing similar hosts and vectors, individuals in Italy and Germany have been detected as seropositive for WNV and USUV, while seropositivity for WNV and SLEV has been observed in the Americas. Viruses in the Japanese encephalitis virus serocomplex group exhibit significant antigenic similarity. The envelope protein alone contains 12 distinct epitopes and at least three highly conserved epitopes among the JEV serocomplex. Consequently, infection with one member of the JEV serocomplex group, such as WNV, induces WNV-specific antibodies and heterotypic antibodies that can cross-neutralize other members of the JEV serocomplex group, such as USUV and SLEV. Therefore, cross-reactive epitopes can protect against heterologous virus challenges to varying extents, depending on the accessibility of the antibodies to the epitopes. Prior infection with WNV or its envelope domain III (EDIII) or non-structural protein 1 (NS1) protected mice from lethal JEV challenges. Vaccination against WNV protected mice from lethal USUV challenges, and vice versa. Immunity to JEV or SLEV protected hamsters from lethal WNV challenges. Although human sera immune to WNV cross-neutralized USUV and SLEV in vitro during serodiagnosis, the actual mechanism of cross-protection among WNV, USUV, and SLEV remains poorly characterized. Therefore, this study aims to understand the mechanism of cross-protection. Specifically, this research investigated whether human plasma immune to WNV could cross-protect mice from encephalitis caused by SLEV or USUV. Initially, WNV-specific human convalescent plasma and mouse WNV convalescent serum (as a positive control) neutralized WNV and cross-neutralized USUV and SLEV in vitro in a neutralization test. Subsequently, immunocompetent mice were intraperitoneally injected with human WNV convalescent plasma, human normal plasma, mouse WNV convalescent serum, or mouse normal serum the day before being challenged with WNV, SLEV, or USUV via footpad injection. We found that human WNV convalescent plasma provided mice with strong protection against neuroinvasive encephalitis caused by WNV. Additionally, human WNV convalescent plasma reduced the viremia titers of SLEV and USUV for several days during acute infection. Human WNV convalescent serum also demonstrated a trend towards protecting mice from SLEV-induced encephalitis, as evidenced by lower SLEV titers in the brain and histopathology scores. These findings will aid in decoding the mechanisms of cross-protection among the JEV serovars, developing therapeutic strategies against WNV, SLEV, and USUV, and anticipating potential disease outcomes, especially in regions where multiple viruses of the JEV serocomplex are endemic.
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    JGI Plant Gene Atlas: an updateable transcriptome resource to improve functional gene descriptions across the plant kingdom
    Sreedasyam, Avinash; Plott, Christopher; Hossain, Md Shakhawat; Lovell, John T.; Grimwood, Jane; Jenkins, Jerry W.; Daum, Christopher; Barry, Kerrie; Carlson, Joseph; Shu, Shengqiang; Phillips, Jeremy; Amirebrahimi, Mojgan; Zane, Matthew; Wang, Mei; Goodstein, David; Haas, Fabian B.; Hiss, Manuel; Perroud, Pierre-Francois; Jawdy, Sara S.; Yang, Yongil; Hu, Rongbin; Johnson, Jenifer; Kropat, Janette; Gallaher, Sean D.; Lipzen, Anna; Shakirov, Eugene; Weng, Xiaoyu; Torres-Jerez, Ivone; Weers, Brock; Conde, Daniel; Pappas, Marilia R.; Liu, Lifeng; Muchlinski, Andrew; Jiang, Hui; Shyu, Christine; Huang, Pu; Sebastian, Jose; Laiben, Carol; Medlin, Alyssa; Carey, Sankalpi; Carrell, Alyssa A.; Chen, Jin-Gui; Perales, Mariano; Swaminathan, Kankshita; Allona, Isabel; Grattapaglia, Dario; Cooper, Elizabeth A.; Tholl, Dorothea; Vogel, John P.; Weston, David J.; Yang, Xiaohan; Brutnell, Thomas P.; Kellogg, Elizabeth A.; Baxter, Ivan; Udvardi, Michael; Tang, Yuhong; Mockler, Todd C.; Juenger, Thomas E.; Mullet, John; Rensing, Stefan A.; Tuskan, Gerald A.; Merchant, Sabeeha S.; Stacey, Gary; Schmutz, Jeremy (Oxford University Press, 2023-08-01)
    Gene functional descriptions offer a crucial line of evidence for candidate genes underlying trait variation. Conversely, plant responses to environmental cues represent important resources to decipher gene function and subsequently provide molecular targets for plant improvement through gene editing. However, biological roles of large proportions of genes across the plant phylogeny are poorly annotated. Here we describe the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Plant Gene Atlas, an updateable data resource consisting of transcript abundance assays spanning 18 diverse species. To integrate across these diverse genotypes, we analyzed expression profiles, built gene clusters that exhibited tissue/condition specific expression, and tested for transcriptional response to environmental queues. We discovered extensive phylogenetically constrained and condition-specific expression profiles for genes without any previously documented functional annotation. Such conserved expression patterns and tightly co-expressed gene clusters let us assign expression derived additional biological information to 64 495 genes with otherwise unknown functions. The ever-expanding Gene Atlas resource is available at JGI Plant Gene Atlas (https://plantgeneatlas.jgi.doe.gov) and Phytozome (https://phytozome.jgi.doe.gov/), providing bulk access to data and user-specified queries of gene sets. Combined, these web interfaces let users access differentially expressed genes, track orthologs across the Gene Atlas plants, graphically represent co-expressed genes, and visualize gene ontology and pathway enrichments.