Proteostasis and Viral Evolution

Abstract

RNA viruses like influenza are able to rapidly adapt to environmental, drug, and immune system pressures owing to their exceptionally high mutation rates. But these high mutation rates come at a price -- the constant introduction of new amino acid variants that challenge viral protein folding. We discuss recent findings that viruses address this biophysical challenge by effectively and efficiently hijacking host chaperones to help their proteins navigate and explore mutational landscapes. This host chaperone hijacking mechanism plays critical roles in immune escape, both innate and adaptive, for multiple viral proteins and for different viruses.