Kevin Sokoloski

Graduate Student

Phone: 970-491-4881
Fax: 970-491-4941
Email: sokolosk@simla.colostate.edu

Degrees

B.S., Microbiology - Colorado State University

Research Interests

In order to establish a successful infection a virus must be able to replicate efficiently, as well as evade host defense mechanisms. Externally the packaged viral RNA is capable of avoiding degradation under the protection of the structural proteins; however internally the defense afforded by the encapsidation of the virus is rapidly lost during uncoating, leaving the genomic portions of the virus essentially undefended. In this environment not only must the viral RNA compete for host resources, it must also evade cellular decay machinery.

It has been previously shown (both in vitro and in cell culture) that the degradation of cellular mRNAs is a potent yet regulated method for the removal of undesired mRNAs from the cytoplasm. Togaviruses and Flaviviruses present themselves as being essentially a nascent mRNA, possessing identical features when compared to cellular messages. In particular the genomes of alphaviruses possess a 5’ cap to protect from 5’-3’ degradation and a poly(A) tail to protect them from 3’-5’ decay. While these features are able to provide protection at a basal level, mechanisms exist to remove these modifications causing the rapid turnover of transcript. We hypothesize that viral RNAs have developed a means to evade the host cell mRNA decay machinery to allow them to persist in the cytoplasm.

My primary research goal is to identify and characterize mRNA stabilizer elements in viral RNAs, specifically Venezuelan Encephalitis Virus and Sindbis Virus, and to identify host factors that mediate their function.

Publications

Sokoloski K.J., Wilusz C.J., Wilusz J. (2006) Viruses: overturning RNA turnover. RNA Biol 4:140-4.

Opyrchal, M., Anderson, J.T., Sokoloski, K.J., Wilusz, C.J. and Wilusz, J. (2005) A cell-free mRNA stability assay reveals conservation of the enzymes and mechanisms of mRNA decay between mosquito and mammalian cell lines. Insect Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 35(12):1321-34

Links

VEE in "Foreign Animal Diseases - The Gray Book"
http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/gray_book/FAD/VEE.htm