Description:

Title: Poxviruses as Models for Species-Specific Host-Virus Interactions with the Innate Immune System and for Horizontal Gene Transfer

Topic: "The host range and virulence of viruses is not only mediated by specific receptors that viruses use to enter host cells, but also by the interaction of vial gene products with the host innate immune system. Because poxviruses promiscuously bind and enter cells from a variety of species, they represent great models to study host-virus specific interactions and their importance for virus replication and host range. Here I will present data how species-specific inhibition of the host antiviral protein kinase R (PKR) by several poxviruses affects virus replication and cytokine induction. I will further show how poxviruses can capture host genes with the help of host LINE-1 retrotransposons, and how non-homologous recombination of two complementing replication-deficient poxviruses can generate a single, replication-competent virus."

Speaker: Stefan Rothenburg, MD, PhD, Professor, University of California-Davis

Host: M-I Dept. Immunology Student and Postodocs, Dept. of Microbiology-Immunology Chorong Park/Natalia Khalatyan, PhD, Coordinating Host