iLIR@viral: A web resource for LIR motif-containing proteins in viruses

Macroautophagy/autophagy has been shown to mediate the selective lysosomal degradation of pathogenic bacteria and viruses (xenophagy), and to contribute to the activation of innate and adaptative immune responses. Autophagy can serve as an antiviral defense mechanism but also as a proviral process during infection. Atg8-family proteins play a central role in the autophagy process due to their ability to interact with components of the autophagy machinery as well as selective autophagy receptors and adaptor proteins. Such interactions are usually mediated through LC3-interacting region (LIR) motifs. So far, only one viral protein has been experimentally shown to have a functional LIR motif, leaving open a vast field for investigation. Here, we have developed the iLIR@viral database (http://ilir.uk/virus/) as a freely accessible web resource listing all the putative canonical LIR motifs identified in viral proteins. Additionally, we used a curated text-mining analysis of the literature to identify novel putative LIR motif-containing proteins (LIRCPs) in viruses. We anticipate that iLIR@viral will assist with elucidating the full complement of LIRCPs in viruses.

巨自噬（Macroautophagy）/自噬（autophagy）已被证实可介导病原细菌与病毒的选择性溶酶体降解（异体吞噬/xenophagy），并参与固有免疫与适应性免疫应答的激活。自噬既可作为抗病毒防御机制，也可在感染过程中充当促病毒过程。Atg8家族蛋白（Atg8-family proteins）在自噬通路中发挥核心作用，因其能够与自噬机制组分、选择性自噬受体及衔接蛋白发生相互作用。此类相互作用通常通过LC3相互作用结构域（LC3-interacting region, LIR）基序介导。截至目前，仅有一种病毒蛋白被实验证实携带功能性LIR基序，这为相关研究留下了广阔的探索空间。本研究构建了iLIR@viral数据库（访问地址：http://ilir.uk/virus/），作为免费开放的网络资源，收录了在病毒蛋白中鉴定出的所有推定经典LIR基序。此外，我们通过经人工校验的文本挖掘分析，在病毒中鉴定出新型的推定携带LIR基序的蛋白（LIR motif-containing proteins, LIRCPs）。我们预期iLIR@viral数据库将有助于阐明病毒中LIRCPs的完整组成。