Research

Predicting the subcellular localization of viral proteins within a mammalian host cell

MS Scott¹ , R Oomen² , DY Thomas³ and MT Hallett¹

¹  McGill Center for Bioinformatics, McGill University, 3775 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

²  Integrated Genomics, Sanofi Pasteur, 1755 Steeles Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

³  Biochemistry Department, McGill University, McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Virology Journal 2006, 3:24doi:10.1186/1743-422X-3-24

Published:	4 April 2006

Abstract

Background

The bioinformatic prediction of protein subcellular localization has been extensively studied for prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. However, this is not the case for viruses whose proteins are often involved in extensive interactions at various subcellular localizations with host proteins.

Results

Here, we investigate the extent of utilization of human cellular localization mechanisms by viral proteins and we demonstrate that appropriate eukaryotic subcellular localization predictors can be used to predict viral protein localization within the host cell.

Conclusion

Such predictions provide a method to rapidly annotate viral proteomes with subcellular localization information. They are likely to have widespread applications both in the study of the functions of viral proteins in the host cell and in the design of antiviral drugs.