The khmer package is a freely available software library for working efficiently with fixed length DNA words, or k-mers. khmer provides implementations of a probabilistic k-mer counting data structure, a compressible De Bruijn graph…
Abstract Background While RNA is often created from linear splicing during transcription, recent studies have found that non-canonical splicing sometimes occurs. Non-canonical splicing joins 3’ and 5’ and forms the so-called circular RNA. It is now…
Coronaviruses are enveloped positive-stranded RNA viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm. To deliver their nucleocapsid into the host cell, they rely on the fusion of their envelope with the host cell membrane. The spike glycoprotein (S) mediates…
The coronavirus (CoV) RNA genome is the largest among the single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses. CoVs encode a proofreading 3′-to-5′ exoribonuclease within nonstructural protein 14 (nsp14-ExoN) that is responsible for CoV high-fidelity…
Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), an enteropathogenic coronavirus (CoV) of porcine, causes lethal watery diarrhea and severe dehydration in piglets and leads to severe economic losses in the swine industry. Unlike most CoVs that antagonize…
Integrase (IN) represents a clinically validated target for the development of antivirals against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In recent years our research group has been engaged in the stucture-function study of this enzyme and in the…
Avian coronaviruses (ACoVs) are continuously evolving and causing serious economic consequences in the poultry industry and around the globe. Owing to their extensive genetic diversity and high mutation rates, controlling ACoVs has become a…
Abstract Background The piRNA pathway operates in animal germ lines to ensure genome integrity through retrotransposon silencing. The Piwi protein-associated small RNAs (piRNAs) guide Piwi proteins to retrotransposon transcripts, which are degraded…
The Coronaviridae family, an enveloped RNA virus family, and, more particularly, human coronaviruses (HCoV), were historically known to be responsible for a large portion of common colds and other upper respiratory tract infections. HCoV are now…
The mobile genetic element s2m has been described in several families of single-stranded RNA viruses. The function remains elusive, but an increasing number of s2m-containing sequences are being deposited in publicly available databases. Currently,…