Microbiologia Médica e Diagnóstico

A Bioinformatic Glimpse of Human-Origin Zika Virus Polyprotein

Abstract

Joel K Weltman

An amino acid position with maximum Shannon information entropy and maximum cumulative mutual information is identified in Zika virus polyprotein. This amino acid position is used to sort the subset of Zika virus polyprotein mutations found exclusively in viruses isolated from human hosts but not from vector Aedes mosquitos. The identified mutational amino acid position is a component of a 20-mer peptide in the NS1 protein that has been reported with putative epitopic activity by Freire et al. It is suggested that the observed dual maxima bioinformatic parameters reported here for an exclusively human mutational site support the proposed function of that site in immunological activity.