METHODS: PubMed and Google Scholar were systematically reviewed for peer-reviewed papers up to January 2023.
RESULTS: A promising solution to the problem of emerging variants is a DNA vaccine platform since it can be easily modified. Besides expressing whole protein antigens, DNA vaccines can also be constructed to include specific nucleotide genes encoding highly conserved and immunogenic epitopes from the S protein as well as from other structural/non-structural proteins to develop effective vaccines against VOCs. DNA vaccines are associated with low transfection efficiencies which could be enhanced by chemical, genetic, and molecular adjuvants as well as delivery systems.
CONCLUSIONS: The DNA vaccine platform offers a promising solution to the design of effective vaccines. The challenge of limited immunogenicity in humans might be solved through the use of genetic modifications such as the addition of nuclear localization signal (NLS) peptide gene, strong promoters, MARs, introns, TLR agonists, CD40L, and the development of appropriate delivery systems utilizing nanoparticles to increase uptake by APCs in enhancing the induction of potent immune responses.
METHODS: Nuclear DNA sequence data were generated for 128 species across 111 genera (78%) of Araceae using target sequence capture and the Angiosperms 353 universal probe set.
RESULTS: The phylogenomic data confirmed the monophyly of the eight Araceae subfamilies, but the phylogenetic position of subfamily Lasioideae remains uncertain. The genus Calla is included in subfamily Aroideae, which has also been expanded to include Zamioculcadoideae. The tribe Aglaonemateae is newly defined to include the genera Aglaonema and Boycea.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results strongly suggest that new research on African genera (Callopsis, Nephthytis, and Anubias) and Calla will be important for understanding the early evolution of the Aroideae. Also of particular interest are the phylogenetic positions of the isolated genera Montrichardia, Zantedeschia, and Anchomanes, which remain only moderately supported here.
RESULTS: Here, we reported the first Oceanospirillum phage, vB_OliS_GJ44, which was assembled into a 33,786 bp linear dsDNA genome, which includes abundant tail-related and recombinant proteins. The recombinant module was highly adapted to the host, according to the tetranucleotides correlations. Genomic and morphological analyses identified vB_OliS_GJ44 as a siphovirus, however, due to the distant evolutionary relationship with any other known siphovirus, it is proposed that this virus could be classified as the type phage of a new Oceanospirivirus genus within the Siphoviridae family. vB_OliS_GJ44 showed synteny with six uncultured phages, which supports its representation in uncultured environmental viral contigs from metagenomics. Homologs of several vB_OliS_GJ44 genes have mostly been found in marine metagenomes, suggesting the prevalence of this phage genus in the oceans.
CONCLUSIONS: These results describe the first Oceanospirillum phage, vB_OliS_GJ44, that represents a novel viral cluster and exhibits interesting genetic features related to phage-host interactions and evolution. Thus, we propose a new viral genus Oceanospirivirus within the Siphoviridae family to reconcile this cluster, with vB_OliS_GJ44 as a representative member.