Effects of host physiology on virus growth

John Yin (19K JPG)

Chemical engineering Professor John Yin and graduate students Lingchong You and Patrick Suthers are noted in the April issue of Science for their experimental and computational studies of bacteriophage T7 (a virus that attacks bacterial cells) and its host Escherichia coli.

Yin's group uses methods of chemical engineering, molecular and cell biology, and systems science to study how viruses grow and evolve. Viruses are useful as model genomic systems because their intracellular developmental processes are relatively simple, their molecular functions have been well characterized, and they can be readily cultured in the laboratory. Moreover, viruses are important because they can cause a variety of diseases such as AIDS, cancer and the common cold.

Using the growth of bacteriophage T7 as a model system, the team is developing a better understanding of how the physiology and resources of the host relate to the productivity of a phage infection. Yin says the studies may suggest means to alleviate bottlenecks and improve yields in the bioprocessing of viral vaccines and gene therapy vectors.

The team published their latest findings in the April issue of the Journal of Bacteriology. The latest simulation shows the primary limitation on T7 growth is the number of ribosomes. The simulation also was used to follow how bottlenecks to phage growth shift in response to variations in host or phage functions.