Evaluation of the role of codon usage on the evolution of the Coronaviridae: avian / mammalian host systems

• Grant number: 15/17889-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2015
• End date: November 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Biology and Physiology of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Eduardo Brandão
• Grantee: Paulo Eduardo Brandão
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Karin Corrêa Scheffer Ferreira ; Rafael de Novaes Oliveira

Abstract

Coronaviruses (Nidovirales: Coronaviridae: Coronavirinae) use a wide range of mammalian and avian species as hosts, having evolved with the ancestors of these animals since at least 293 million years, leading to diverse kinds of virus-host relationships such as pathologic processes of the respiratory, reproductive, enteric and urinary tracts or asymptomatic infections as in Chiropterans, the targets of the most recent evolutionary and epidemiological investigations regarding coronaviruses. The co-evolution of the coronavirus-host system has been widely investigated regarding phylogeny, quasi-species population genetics, cell pathology, immune response, receptors and transmission, but studies based on codon usage are scarce. In this regard, this Project aims to measure codon usage for structural and non-structural proteins genes in coronavirus species regarding the codon usage found in different replication sites in mammalian and avian species, to define the evolutionary forces that rule codon usage in Coronavirinae and to study in a compared manner the selection regime in Coronavirinae based on both codon usage and nucleotides. The expected outcomes are the contribution to the understanding of the molecular evolution of coronaviruses and hosts, allowing the prediction of the fitness of new coronaviruses to different hosts, as well as the validation of codon-based molecular phylogeny methods to be applied to other virus-host systems. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BRANDAO, PAULO EDUARDO. Could human coronavirus OC43 have co-evolved with early humans?. GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, v. 41, n. 3, p. 692-698, JUL-SEP 2018. (15/17889-6)

BRANDAO, PAULO EDUARDO. Could human coronavirus OC43 have co-evolved with early humans?. GENETICS AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, v. 41, n. 3, p. 7-pg., 2018-07-01. (15/17889-6)

BRANDAO, PAULO E.; AYRES, GISELLE R. R.; TORRES, CAROLINA A.; VILLARREAL, LAURA Y. B.; HORA, ALINE S.; TANIWAKI, SUELI A.. Complete Genome Sequence of a Brazil-Type Avian coronavirus Detected in a Chicken. MICROBIOLOGY RESOURCE ANNOUNCEMENTS, v. 4, n. 5, SEP-OCT 2016. (15/17889-6)

BRANDAO, PAULO E.; AYRES, GISELLE R. R.; TORRES, CAROLINA A.; VILLARREAL, LAURA Y. B.; HORA, ALINE S.; TANIWAKI, SUELI A.. Complete Genome Sequence of a Brazil-Type Avian coronavirus Detected in a Chicken. GENOME ANNOUNCEMENTS, v. 4, n. 5, p. 2-pg., 2016-09-01. (15/17889-6)