Séminaire CIRI (10.10.2023) : Pr. Roberto CATTANEO

Pr. Roberto CATTANEO, (Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Mayo Clinic – Rochester – Minnesota - USA;  « A lethal genome collective : brain tropism acquisition by measles virus »

Abstract: It is increasingly appreciated that pathogens can spread as collective infectious units. Brain autopsy material from a patient who died with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) provided a unique opportunity to reconstruct the evolution of an RNA genome collective in a human brain. Multiple distinct genome lineages co-replicated even at the level of single cells. Driver mutations were independently and recurrently selected across brain regions and genetic backgrounds. Specific mutations were constrained to intermediate prevalence by frequency-dependent selection, which modulated fusogenicity. Analyses of this and other SSPE brains indicate that plastically evolving genome collectives are key for measles virus brain colonization and raise profound questions about the importance of genome collectives in human disease more broadly.