Bioinformatic analysis of WSSV envelope proteins

As a large enveloped virus, white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is characterized by multiple envelope proteins. Many studies have been carried out on these proteins, but their details and roles have for the most part remained obscure. In this study, bioinformatic approaches were applied to predict interactions between WSSV envelope proteins and shrimp receptors, as well as their secondary structural features. The results revealed that such interactions might widely occur among these envelope proteins, many of which had multiple partners; different shrimp receptors could interact with different envelope proteins. Structural analysis of these envelope proteins showed that many were predicted to have more than one hydrophobic segments, beta-strands or beta-hairpin segments except coiled-coil-like regions. It may be concluded that envelope proteins may function by formation of various interactomes determined by cellular receptors, some proteins with multiple partners may work as hubs and some may function like class II fusion proteins to facilitate viral membrane fusion. Though experimental confirmation is necessary, these results have provided valuable cues for us to expand the understanding of WSSV infection, and will be helpful for finding new strategies to fight white spot syndrome disease.