Role of the Host Translational Machinery in Zika Virus Replication

The pandemic of ZIKV during 2013-2016 had alarmed the global world because of its association of rising cases of microcephaly in newborn in Brazil. Similar to most other flavivirus, ZIKV genome encodes for a single open reding frame with multiple transmembrane domains that is cleaved into at least 3 structural and 7 non-structural proteins. To synthesize such a complex multi-pass protein, transmembrane domains have to be inserted correctly during de-novo synthesis. It is generally believed that flavivirus polyprotein is targeted to translocon for insertion by signal recognition particle (SRP) pathway, but direct evidences are incomplete.