ESCV 2021 - P238: Mapping the Minimal Set of the Viral Peptidome across all Major Viral Taxonomies
Channel: Li Chuin Chong
Date: 2021-09-12

===ABSTRACT===
AIM: Sequence changes in viral genomes generate protein sequence diversity and pose challenges in the design of interventions, such as vaccines and drugs. The total repertoire of antigenic diversity within a dataset of protein sequences can be represented by only a fraction of the sequences due to antigenic redundancy (AR). Consequently, the idea of minimal set of the viral peptidome is to identify the smallest set of protein sequences that can represent the antigenic diversity present in a given protein sequence dataset. This was applied herein across ranks of taxonomic lineages (species, genus, and family) for major viruses with sufficiently large reported protein sequences. 

METHODS: The protein sequences for the selected viral species, genus and family ranks were retrieved and deduplicated. The minimal set for each lineage ranks of the 46 major taxonomies was generated using the tool, UNIQmin (https://github.com/ChongLC/MinimalSetofViralPeptidome-UNIQmin). 

RESULTS: The species with the highest and lowest AR were Lassa mammarenavirus (~23.5%) and Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (~1.4%), respectively; genera Mamastrovirus (~38.6%) and Gequatrovirus (~1.6%), respectively; family Retroviridae (~32.4%) and Microviridae (~2.0%), respectively. AR increased with an increase in sequence number and that the magnitude of this change was dependent on the sequence variability level, with the highest magnitude observed for the most conserved and the lowest for the extremely diverse. Nonetheless, the AR is predicted to hover in the range of ~15-25% over time. 

CONCLUSIONS: The generation of minimal sets elucidated intricate patterns of antigenic diversity inherent across the taxonomic lineage ranks, with implications to vaccines and antivirals.

===RELATED LINKS===
Publication: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/10/9/853#
Git-Hub: https://github.com/ChongLC/MinimalSetofViralPeptidome-UNIQmin