Comparing Gene Trees and Genome Trees: A Cobweb of Life?

October 2005 | Volume 3 | Issue 10 | e347 | e353 Viewed under a microscope, the coronavirus appears almost beautiful, thanks to the halo-like crown formed by its surface proteins. (“Corona” means “crown” in Latin.) Aesthetics aside, this genus of viruses is responsible for a wide range of animal and human diseases, from the common cold to the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome, familiarly known as SARS. Research efforts to design antiviral agents to combat coronaviruses intensifi ed after SARS killed at least 800 people in 2003 and have focused mostly on just this virus. But Haitao Yang, Dawei Ma, Zihe Rao, and colleagues reasoned that it might prove more effi cient to develop wide-spectrum drugs and vaccines that could work against all coronaviruses— signifi cantly reducing the health and economic burden associated with the 25 species of coronavirus. Scientists fear that vaccines may prove ineffectual against coronaviruses because the viruses, like HIV, change their protein sequences and structures so often that a vaccine targeting one strain would likely be ineffective against another. The success of such a vaccine strategy depends on fi nding a protein target that is present, or well conserved, among all the different coronaviruses. By combining structural and biochemical analyses, Yang et al. not only identifi ed such a target in a conserved region of a viral enzyme but also designed compounds with antiviral activity against multiple coronaviruses. Casting a Wide Net to Fight Coronaviruses