Abstract

As obligate cellular parasites viruses are obliged to use cellular machinery and pathways to complete their life cycle. Furthermore, a variety of interferon induced intracellular antiviral proteins called restriction factors seek to inhibit viral replication and protect the host. Viruses are obliged to avoid or counteract restriction and together these interactions combine resulting in rather narrow host ranges, for example HIV -1 only replicates in humans and chimpanzees. The aim of our work is to characterise the relationship between viruses and restriction factors and to understand the molecular details of their antiviral activities. The talk will describe our work on the anti HIV -1 protein TRIM5 α how we think it works and how antiviral specificity is controlled. I will also describe how the TRIM5 gene has been modified by swapping the viral binding domain with a Cyclophilin A protein to make a TRIM Cyp that has distinct antiviral properties. I will also describe our work on tetherin and its activity against HIV -1 as well as the herpes virus KSHV . Throughout I will describe how we believe virus/host counter-evolution is described by the Red Queen Hypothesis.