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Max Fels

@mfels.bsky.social

130 followers 180 following 18 posts

Branco Weiss and Moderna Global Fellow at DFCI/HMS. On the lookout for the strangest viruses out there. brancoweissfellowship.org/fellow/fe…

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Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

This unique viral replication strategy shows that you can build sophisticated translation regulation through a very simple cap-binding complex. Perhaps there are contexts in which cellular organisms also make use of similar strategies?

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Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

How does the viral cap-binding complex specifically promote viral translation? Viral mRNAs carry a unique 5′ UTR motif: a conserved +1A followed by AU-rich sequences. A crystal structure of vIF4E shows exactly how this mRNA cap is recognized!

Crystal structure of viral IF4E bound to a viral cap structure.

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Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

This effect becomes obvious when looking at viral factories by TEM. Early in infection these large structures form independent of the viral cap-binding complex, but when this complex is disrupted viral particles cannot assemble.

Transmission electron micrograph showing viral factories in amoebae infected with mimivirus.

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Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Giant DNA viruses encode a stunning number of proteins that were long thought unique to living organisms. Among them: translation factors, the master regulators of protein synthesis. But are these viral proteins functional?

Transmission electron micrograph of a mimivirus particle.

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