Infectious reovirus rescue from temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants

Globally, viruses cause more than half of deaths recorded in humans. Thus, lots of scientific research is ongoing to prevent viral-related disease and death. In addition to known harmful effects that viruses can have, other research has shown that viruses may be beneficial. For example, mammalian reoviruses can destroy certain types of cancer cells without apparently harming normal non-cancerous cells. It appears that some aspects of internal cell signaling play roles in whether or not the virus can kill cells, but virus characteristics that determine cell killing are not as well known. The student will learn a technique called “Reverse Genetics” to make changes in the virus genome in order to define some of these virus characteristics. As a learning experience, the student will determine which of 3 known amino acid alterations in a specific virus temperature-sensitive mutant are responsible for the mutant characteristic, by systematically changing each of the 3 amino acids and testing temperature sensitivity of each clone. For completeness, the student will also make and test each possible double-and triple-mutant, for a total of 8 clones (1 wild-type; 1 mutant; 3 single- and 3 double-mutants).

Faculty Supervisor:

Kevin Coombs

Student:

Partner:

University of Pittsburgh

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Manitoba

Program: