Lien vers Pubmed [PMID] – 32937646
Lien DOI – 10.1038/s41586-020-2762-2
Nature 2021 Jan; 589(7840): 120-124
Viperin is an interferon-induced cellular protein that is conserved in animals1. It has previously been shown to inhibit the replication of multiple viruses by producing the ribonucleotide 3′-deoxy-3′,4′-didehydro (ddh)-cytidine triphosphate (ddhCTP), which acts as a chain terminator for viral RNA polymerase2. Here we show that eukaryotic viperin originated from a clade of bacterial and archaeal proteins that protect against phage infection. Prokaryotic viperins produce a set of modified ribonucleotides that include ddhCTP, ddh-guanosine triphosphate (ddhGTP) and ddh-uridine triphosphate (ddhUTP). We further show that prokaryotic viperins protect against T7 phage infection by inhibiting viral polymerase-dependent transcription, suggesting that it has an antiviral mechanism of action similar to that of animal viperin. Our results reveal a class of potential natural antiviral compounds produced by bacterial immune systems.