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The Hill Lab @ York

Molecular mechanisms of viral gene expression

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Viruses do things differently

Translation of mRNA by the ribosome is essential for all life. It’s normally exceptionally accurate, with spontaneous error rates of only ~1 in 10,000 to 100,000 codons.

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When RNA viruses infect cells, they use the ribosomes in the host cell to translate their genomes. However, they often force the ribosome to behave differently - e.g. shift into a different reading frame, initiate in a different place, or read through a stop codon. 

 

These are tightly-regulated events that are vitally important for viral gene expression. If disrupted, many viruses fail to complete their replication cycles. We're trying to better understand these events at a molecular level.

Latest Publications

The cardioviruses (e.g. EMCV, TMEV) exhibit the highest known viral PRF efficiency in nature, with up to 85% of ribosomes changing frame. This is an unusual case: the viral 2A protein is required to activate frameshifting through an unknown mechanism. Here, we combine single-molecule FRET and SAXS to show how 2A binding induces a striking conformational change in the RNA stimulatory element, switching it from a stem-loop into a pseudoknot. A 1.9 Å X-ray crystal structure of the complex reveals the mechanism by which 2A stabilises this new RNA pseudoknot.

Find Us

Address

Department of Biology

University of York

Wentworth Way

York

United Kingdom

YO10 5DD

Contact

+44 (0)1904 328688

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© 2025 Chris H. Hill

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