beta_helix Staff Lv 1
Porcine Circovirus 2 (PCV2) is a tiny and seemingly simple virus but it has managed to infect pigs across the world and cause billions in damages to the porcine industry. PCV2 has infected pigs at least as early as the 70s but during the mid-80s, and for unknown reasons, a pandemic of Porcine CircoVirus Associated Disease (PCVAD) began. First identified by a Canadian researcher in 1991, PCVAD has subsequently been described on five continents.
Circoviruses thus far have been found in pigs, birds, turtles, chickens and humans. Humans also appear to have many different species of circoviruses but it is uncertain if they cause any disease in humans or if our immune systems keep them in check. We hope a better understanding of the porcine disease will allow us to understand the relationship between circoviruses and humans.
We would like to understand how and why this disease developed and then to develop a treatment. Early work suggests that a small protein called Orf3 may be an important factor in the development of the disease. One of the difficulties we have faced so far is that due to complexity in the genome it is difficult to make a reliable bioinformatic prediction about orf3. This is where we are asking for your help.
By folding Orf3 we hope to discover what this protein looks like to help us understand what exactly it does in the cell. From what we know so far, it doesn't look like it's related to any known protein. With refinement of the models we hope to make more accurate predictions to look for deeper similarities which would be preserved in the structure. These structures will give us the evidence to formulate some strong hypotheses for testing.
We have posted four predicted models of PCV2 Orf3 (378: Porcine Circovirus 2 Orf3 Puzzle) and will be releasing two more from PCV1 soon (a non-disease causing sister-taxa of PCV2) for folding.
Thank you for your help and happy folding!