Overview
- A peer-reviewed Nature Communications paper led by Monash University and the University of Melbourne, with national partners, details how rabies commandeers cells despite a tiny genome.
- Experiments show the virus’s P protein changes conformation and binds RNA, enabling phase separation and entry into liquid-like cellular compartments.
- This access lets the pathogen co-opt processes such as protein production and immune control, turning infected cells into efficient factories.
- The findings challenge the modular view of viral proteins by showing multifunctionality arises from inter-domain dynamics and conformational flexibility.
- Authors suggest similar tactics may occur in viruses like Nipah and Ebola and could be blocked by future antivirals or vaccines, though no clinical applications exist yet.