Structural Biochemistry/Viruses and SLiMs Interaction/Introduction

Introduction
Viruses are small infectious organisms that display self replication only inside of living cells of a host organism; they are dependent on host cells for survival. Viruses have the ability to infect a wide variety of living organisms from animals and plants to smaller organisms such as bacteria.

Viruses, as a parasite, cannot reproduce without taking advantage of a suitable host and are the infectious organisms that have the greatest interaction and relationship with their hosts. From every sequential action that the viruses goes through, from first contact with the host cell to reproduction via budding is arranged through the interactions with protein molecules in the host cell. Through these interactions, "viruses will hijack and manipulate these proteins utilizing any achievable mechanism". However, the interactions between viruses and the host has given rise to questioning and further analysis in the approach the virus takes to manipulate the host. The claim that the viruses manipulate and hijack via imitating specific proteins known as short linear motifs (SLiMs) used for cellular regulation and pathways contribute to the evaluation of this molecules and how they are responsible for the interaction between viruses and the host take place.

Viruses inject their own components such as DNA/RNA, polymerases, helicases, and proteases when they infect cells. These components allow for the viruses to replicate and duplicate inside of a host cell. The infected host cell needs to be ready for viral replication once the virus interacts with the host cell by interfering with the host cell regulations.

Classification of “a novel class of compact non-globular protein interaction interfaces (now referred to as short linear motifs, SLiMs, LMs or minimotifs )”. Sequence motifs are sequence patterns that have a biological significance in cellular pathways. Studies have shown that SLiMs are diverse and widespread in eukaryotic proteomes. SLiMs feature special characteristics that “include the capacity to encode a functional interaction interface in a short sequence (three to ten residues), enrichment in intrinsically disordered regions of proteins, the ability to function independently of their tertiary structural context and a tendency to evolve convergently” which distinguish them from their binding counterparts, globular domains.

There are a lot different cellular pathways and functions in which viruses can use SLiMs to manipulate the host cell.