Overlapping genes

Overlapping genes are commonplace in viruses and play an important role in their function and evolution. Coevolution in OVerlapped sequences by Tree analysis (COVTree) is a web server providing the online analysis of coevolving amino-acid pairs in overlapping genes, where residues might be located inside or outside the overlapping region.

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 PhyloSofS

We propose PhyloSofS, the first automated tool to reconstruct plausible evolutionary scenarios explaining a set of observed transcripts, and to generate 3D molecular models of the protein isoforms. We apply it to the JNK family (60 transcripts, 7 trees) to identify AS events of ancient origin and relate their functional outcome with changes in the protein dynamics. We also show that PhyloSofS can help identify new potential therapeutic targets.Link to the paper

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Spike protein of SARS2

A.Carbone and F.Oteri work on the Spike protein of SARS2 in collaboration with the group of F.L.Cosset at CIRI in Lyon, expert in non-replicative retroviral pseudoparticles. Based on coevolution analysis of patient sequences and sequences from bats and other species, they aim at identifying key residues in the Spike protein involved in the entry mechanism of the virus in human cells. In the past, the two groups successfully combined their computational and experimental methods to unravel critical features of the original HCV fusion mechanism.

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Statistical Genomics and Biological Physics

The team "Statistical Genomics and Biological Physics" has obtained financial support by the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering of Sorbonne Université, to develop sequence-data driven models of evolutionary landscapes and selective constraints acting in the Covid-19 causing virus SARS-CoV-2. The projects aims at finding signatures of selection in the rapidly increasing number of available genomes, and to interpret them in terms of protein structure, function and protein-protein interactions inside coronaviruses and with the host (e.g. the famous interaction of the viral spike protein with the human ACE2 receptor). 

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