🚨Preprint alert! Kind of a late notice, but here is our latest work on bat Dicer and viral infection. Work led by @leagaucherand.bsky.social and Hugo Marie in the lab. @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social @unistra.fr @frm-officiel.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If anyone is at #RNA2025, please stop by my lab’s posters on triphosphate balance and virus infection and tracking persistent infection with precision to identify viral miRNA functions.

Authors Szymanik and Mojumder are really great and are presenting in the second session this Friday from 8-10.

Small DNA viruses can concurrently shed via two different patterns: continuous low-level shedding of numerous reservoirs and punctuated rare high shedding from one or a few reservoirs.

We hope tools presented here are useful to study other persistent pathogens.

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Stop for a second and try to imagine this: a heat shock protein relocalizes to the cell surface and mediates dsRNA binding and internalization!
Intrigued? Read our newly minted paper in Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congrats to all the authors and thanks to reviewers and editor!

Newest: Virologs mark #RNA metabolism as an evolutionary battleground during infection - Great collaboration w/@sullivanlab.bsky.social & Kayla Szymanik @plos.org journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

New Resource Article:
Joseph Ziegelbauer @drjz.bsky.social and colleagues profile cis- and trans-acting elements of viral circRNAs and identify noncanonical mechanisms underlying back-splicing - utilizing their custom-built “CHARLIE” pipeline
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Another nice example of a host-acquired gene in poxviruses, which modulates the host immune response.
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Previously, KO and overexpression showed host RNA 5’ triphosphatase DUSP11 can reduce RIG-I sensitivity.

Here, we show poxviruses code for viral DUSP11 that can regulate host RNP III transcripts and RIG-I, providing evolutionary support DUSP11 can be pro-viral.

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

This work depended on the creative mind of Benni Goetz who came up with new ways to visualize and analyze virus barcode data. Unfortunately, Benni passed away before publication of his work. We hope his methods will be useful to others studying diverse microbes and persistent infection.

This may help explain the ubiquity and success of these viruses for long term persistence.

Happy to share our manuscript showing that a small DNA virus can concurrently shed via two different patterns: continuous low-level shedding of numerous reservoirs and punctuated rare high shedding from one or a few reservoirs.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Please add me too. I am a virologist at UT Austin.