Abstract
Author Summary Viruses often can highly efficiently utilize the host system to make huge amounts of viral proteins for their replication; however, which host factors are needed by the viruses are largely unknown. We analyzed about one hundred Drosophila mutants and found that the pelo mutation in Drosophila inhibited Drosophila C virus (DCV) replication. We found pelo is specifically required for high efficiency synthesis of proteins of a number of viruses, suggesting that inhibition of pelo may mediate a general antiviral activity. We proposed that the function of pelo in quality control of protein synthesis is required for high efficiency viral protein synthesis. Our study presented here identifies a new host factor, pelo, that is specifically required for effective viral replication and it may be a new potential therapeutic target for broad-spectrum antiviral therapy.
