Matthew T Aliota, Dawn M Dudley, Christina M Newman, James Weger-Lucarelli, Laurel M Stewart, Michelle R Koenig, Meghan E Breitbach, Andrea M Weiler, Matthew R Semler, Gabrielle L Barry, Katie R Zarbock, Amelia K Haj, Ryan V Moriarty, Mariel S Mohns, Emma L Mohr, Vanessa Venturi, Nancy Schultz-Darken, Eric Peterson, Wendy Newton, Michele L Schotzko, Heather A Simmons, Andres Mejia, Jennifer M Hayes, Saverio Capuano, Miles P Davenport, Thomas C Friedrich, Gregory D Ebel, Shelby L O'Connor, David H O'Connor
Defining the complex dynamics of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in pregnancy and during transmission between vertebrate hosts and mosquito vectors is critical for a thorough understanding of viral transmission, pathogenesis, immune evasion, and potential reservoir establishment. Within-host viral diversity in ZIKV infection is low, which makes it difficult to evaluate infection dynamics. To overcome this biological hurdle, we constructed a molecularly barcoded ZIKV. This virus stock consists of a "synthetic swarm" whose members are genetically identical except for a run of eight consecutive degenerate codons, which creates approximately 64,000 theoretical nucleotide combinations that all encode the same amino acids...
March 28, 2018: PLoS Pathogens