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A trove of antiviral TRIM family E3 ligases in reptiles

Boys, I. N.; Quinlan, M. R.; Elde, N. C.

2025-06-25 evolutionary biology
10.1101/2025.06.23.661133 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Many scaled reptiles (squamates) are exposed to flaviviruses but some, including iguanas, exhibit strong resistance to infection. To identify genes encoding viral resistance, we screened a cDNA library generated from green iguana and discovered a reptilian TRIM-family E3 ubiquitin ligase that reduces dengue virus replication [~]10,000-fold. Experimental evolution identified flavivirus capsid as the substrate of this ligase, revealing an apparent evolutionary vulnerability for flaviviruses, which depend on capsid ubiquitylation to infect cells. HarbingerTRIM is situated in a cluster of related genes near an intact Harbinger transposable element in squamate genomes. Analysis of a sampling of harbiTRIM variants among reptile species revealed distinct antiviral properties, highlighting the vast potential of querying diverse animal genomes for discovering new defenses to pandemic viruses.

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