The Mechanics of Viral Genomes: Single-Molecule Studies

病毒基因组的机制：单分子研究

• 批准号: 1161803
• 负责人: Rob Phillips
• 金额: $ 32.13万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-04-01 至 2015-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1161803&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mechanics; Viral; Genomes; Single; Molecule

The research objective of this award is to develop a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of how the genomic material of viruses enters the cells they are infecting. Cells across all domains of life are subjected to infection by viruses. These viruses have a multitude of different lifestyles which often involve different ways of introducing their genes into the infected host. For some of these viruses, it has been hypothesized that mechanical forces resulting from the tightly-packaged DNA within the virus creates a pressure which injects the DNA into the host?s interior. Studies conducted under this award will test this hypothesis by using fluorescence microscopy to watch individual viruses inject their DNA into individual bacteria and to measure the rate of ejection. By using different drug treatments, the mechanics of the ejection process will be perturbed providing a picture of the molecular processes that drive DNA translocation. If successful, these studies will serve as a powerful example of the interplay between the physical processes that govern the lifestyles of viruses and their biological functions. Further, since the approach merges single-molecule experiments with mechanical models, it will help settle a long standing controversy about how viral infections occur. The research is tightly integrated with an educational plan that focuses on summer time courses in which undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs come to the awardee?s institution for an intensive fortnight of experiments using the study of viral ejection as a paradigm for single-molecule studies of biological processes which represent one of the biological frontiers of mechanics.

该奖项的研究目标是对病毒的基因组物质如何进入其感染的细胞形成定量和机制的理解。 生命各个领域的细胞都会受到病毒的感染。 这些病毒有多种不同的生活方式，通常涉及将其基因引入受感染宿主的不同方式。 对于其中一些病毒，有人假设病毒内紧密包装的 DNA 产生的机械力会产生压力，将 DNA 注入宿主内部。 该奖项下进行的研究将通过使用荧光显微镜观察单个病毒将其 DNA 注入单个细菌并测量喷射率来检验这一假设。 通过使用不同的药物治疗，喷射过程的机制将受到干扰，从而提供驱动 DNA 易位的分子过程的图片。 如果成功，这些研究将成为控制病毒生活方式的物理过程与其生物功能之间相互作用的有力例子。 此外，由于该方法将单分子实验与机械模型相结合，它将有助于解决关于病毒感染如何发生的长期争议。 该研究与一个以暑期课程为重点的教育计划紧密结合，本科生、研究生和博士后来到获奖者的机构进行为期两周的密集实验，使用病毒喷射研究作为生物过程单分子研究的范例，代表了力学的生物前沿之一。