bioSEMINAR with Ruth-Anne Sandaa and Thea Fossum Krog
Thea Fossum Krog: Towards an mRNA vaccine for fish Ruth-Anne Sandaa: The paradox of coexistence – the relationship between giant viruses and their haptophytehosts
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Welcome to bioSEMINAR. The seminar series takes place semi-regularly every Thursday in the Nash auditorium at VilVite. The seminars are open to all interested parties.
Thea Fossum Krog: Towards an mRNA vaccine for fish
It is challenging to develop efficient vaccines against intracellular pathogens such as viruses, and since viral infections are one of the main challenges for farmed salmon, a novel vaccine strategy is needed. mRNA vaccines are optimized and approved for humans, but for fish, the mRNA technology is new, and optimization is required to ensure efficient protein expression. We have made an mRNA tailored to salmon and studied the effect of modified nucleosides and the length of the poly(A) tail on protein expression from in vitro-transcribed mRNA in CHSE-214 cells, using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as a reporter.
Thea is a PhD fellow at the Molecular Biology academic group ("faggruppe") and the Fish Immunology research group.
Ruth-Anne Sandaa: The paradox of coexistence – the relationship between giant viruses and their haptophytehosts
How can low-abundant organisms and their viruses coexist in the ocean? It seems a paradox that while some organisms form massive blooms, others maintain stable low-density populations, yet they are all able to coexist with their viruses.
Using a model system of low-abundance haptophytes and their giant viruses, we observed a rapid development of resistance to viral infection in the host. This development was too rapid to be explained by evolutionary selection through beneficial mutations. Additionally, diverse resistance patterns emerged across similar virus-host systems. We explain these results by presence of Defective Interfering Particles (DIPs), "broken" viruses that interfere with functional viruses, which can explain both the rapid resistance and patterns of diversity. DIPs are known to transform lethal infections into persistent, chronic ones, enabling coexistence. This DIP-mediated mechanism, previously documented only in medical virus-host systems, represents a widespread but overlooked strategy in low-density ocean populations.
Ruth-Anne is a Professor affiliated with the Microbiology academic group ("faggruppe") and the Marine Microbiology research group.