The Effects of a Selenium-Deficient Environment on the Evolution of Coxsackievirus (2012)

Undergraduate: Emily Welker

Faculty Advisor: Melinda Beck
Department: Biology

---

Since 1990, studies have demonstrated that a selenium (Se) deficient diet is an important variable in the emergence of severe virulence in coxsackievirus in a mouse model. In order to better understand how this virulence emerges, our research used a cell-culture model to determine if there are predictable, re-occurring mutations in the non-virulent coxsackievirus (CVB3/0) genome when the virus replicates outside of an animal host. VERO cells were placed in either selenium-deficient of selenium-adequate medium and inoculated with a non-virulent strain of coxsackievirus (CVB3/0). After 120 replications, viral RNA was sequenced to determine whether consistent patterns of mutations arose in the parallel populations of virus in Se deficient, but not in Se adequate, cells. The findings from this study are currently limited, as we ran into some issues at the sequencing step. In the event that repeatable, predictable mutations arise, as they are expected to, these results will have significant public health implications. By extensively studying CVB3 virus evolution, in addition to future studies, a predictable pattern of mutation and evolution of virulence could be discovered.