Statistical analysis of coevolution in SARS-CoV-2 by Eduardo Sarti@MASIM SARS Cov2 event (Nov 2020)
Channel: GT-MASIM
Date: 2020-12-28

Presentation delivered by Eduardo Sarti (PhD, Research fellow@Sorbonne Université, France) during a series of talks organized in Nov 2020 by the French MASIM research group, dedicated to the structural bioinformatics aspects of SARS-CoV-2 research.

"Statistical analysis of coevolutionary signals on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein"
Abstract: The viral protein S (Spike) allows the docking of SARS-CoV-2 virion by exploiting the human receptorACE2, and has a central role in the fusion of the fusion of the viral membrane with that of the host cell. Since it is an outer membrane protein, and therefore in principle capable of being targeted by the host’s immune system or drugs, it is at the heart of biomedical approaches against SARS-CoV-2.The strategy of the Laboratoire de Virologie Humaine at the ENS Lyon is to design peptides with high specificity and binding affinity that prevent the conformational changes that the protein must complete in order to fuse the two membranes. The choice of the binding sites of these peptides on the surface of the S protein is also fundamental :the Analytical Genomics group at Sorbonne Université is developing techniques based on coevolutionary signals for the prediction of residue-residue contacts and allosteric changes.An analysis which combines signals from different phylogenetic distances as well as several structural properties allows to define interesting candidates for the production of peptides. The predictions will be tested by the Laboratoire de Virologie Humaine using viral pseudo-particles that allow comparing the infectivity of the virion during the fusion process in presence of different solutes.

MASIM is a research group within the French CNRS research network for bioinformatics (GdR BIM). Its goal is to promote collaborations and the dissemination of algorithmic methods for structural bioinformatics through an interdisciplinary dialogue involving, but not limited to, Biologists, Computer scientists, Chemists, Mathematicians and Physicists.