Viral protein instability enhances host-range evolvability

Viruses are highly evolvable, but what traits endow this property? The high mutation rates of viruses certainly play a role, but factors that act above the genetic code, like protein thermostability, are also expected to contribute. We studied how the thermostability of a model virus, bacteriophage lambda, affects its ability to evolve to use a new receptor, a key evolutionary transition that can cause host-range evolution. Using directed evolution and synthetic biology techniques we generated a library of host-recognition protein variants with altered stabilities and then tested their capacity to evolve to use a new receptor. Variants fell within three stability classes: stable, unstable, and catastrophically unstable. The most evolvable were the two unstable variants, whereas seven of eight stable variants were significantly less evolvable, and the two catastrophically unstable variants could not grow. The slowly evolving stable variants were delayed because they required an additional destabilizing mutation. These results are particularly noteworthy because they contradict a widely supported contention that thermostabilizing mutations enhance evolvability of proteins by increasing mutational robustness. Our work suggests that the relationship between thermostability and evolvability is more complex than previously thought, provides evidence for a new molecular model of host-range expansion evolution, and identifies instability as a potential predictor of viral host-range evolution. Author summaryUnderstanding how viruses evolve to infect new hosts is critical for predicting host shifts as well as tuning host-range in phage therapy applications. Yet a mechanistic understanding of the molecular steps required to shift hosts has not been achieved. For this study we examined the evolutionary potential of different strains of a model virus, bacteriophage lambda, to gain the ability to use a new receptor, a key step in host shifts. We discovered that lambda variants with destabilized host-recognition proteins were more likely to evolve the necessary mutations to use the new receptor than stabilized variants. However, destabilization was only beneficial to a certain point and variants with overly unstable proteins lost all function. These results led us to propose a new molecular model for receptor use evolution in lambda; 1) destabilizing mutations evolve that provide protein structural flexibility that allows new protein conformations to form that are able to interact with the new receptors, and 2) mutations evolve that alter the binding surface chemical properties to assist interactions with the new receptor. Our work with a model virus-host system, points to the potential use of viral stability as a phenotypic indicator of the capacity for virus host-range evolution.

Automated summary

The relationship between stability and evolvability of viruses is more complex than previously thought. Destabilized variants are more likely to evolve the necessary mutations to use a new receptor, while excessively unstable variants lose all function. These findings provide evidence for a new molecular model of host-range expansion evolution and suggest instability as a potential predictor of viral host-range evolution.