Academic Affiliation
Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Credentials
PhD, University of Tennessee
Bio
Brenda Hogue, PhD, has broad interests in the molecular mechanisms of replication and assembly of RNA viruses. As principal investigator, her research efforts contribute to the Biodesign Institute Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.
Dr. Hogue’s laboratory team uses coronaviruses as a model system. Coronaviruses are a large widespread family of single-stranded, positive-sense enveloped RNA viruses. Medically, they are important respiratory and enteric pathogens of humans and a broad range of domestic animals.
The viral genome, ~30 kilobases, is the largest among all RNA viruses. The genome is capped at the five end and contains a poly tail. Replication and assembly occur entirely in the cytoplasm where virions assemble and bud at internal membranes of the intermediate compartment, between the endoplasmic reticulum and cis Golgi.
Coronaviruses are being studied because they closely are related to murine hepatitis, bovine and transmissible gastroenteritis. Dr. Hogue’s research team uses a system in which virus-like particles are generated when cDNA clones of the viral proteins and defective RNA genomes are coexpressed. A full-length infectious cDNA clone also is used to study the requirements for both assembly and replication directly in the context of the viral genome. An ultimate goal of her studies is to use the information gained to identify potential targets for antiviral drug development, vaccine design and development of coronaviruses as vectors.
Assembly studies focus on understanding protein-protein, protein-RNA and protein-lipid interactions that are required for viral assembly. VLPs assemble in a nucleocapsid-independent manner when only the envelope (E) and membrane (M) proteins are coexpressed. Studies are directed at understanding the structure, function and role of E and M in assembly. E absolutely is required for virion assembly and appears to play a major role in determining virion morphology. The protein induces changes in cellular membranes and may play a role in selecting a specific microenvironment within membranes where it induces curvature that facilitates the budding process. M is the most abundant component of the envelope and probably functions like a receptor for nucleocapsid incorporation into virions.
Dr. Hogue uses various microscopic approaches, subcellular fractionation and biochemical analyses to study interactions between the viral proteins and the lipid membrane environment where viruses assemble to understand how the genome is recognized and specifically packaged into virions. Her team is determining how the packaging signal is recognized and functions as a packaging signal in the context of the large viral genome. In addition, her team is studying how the nucleocapsid protein interacts with the viral genome.
Before her work at the Institute, Dr. Hogue was assistant professor at Baylor University in Houston, where she had joint appointments to the college of medicine and the department of molecular virology and microbiology.
Dr. Hogue earned a BS in microbiology from Mississippi State University in Starkville and a master of education in secondary science from Duke University in Durham, N.C. She received a PhD in virology and molecular cell biology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., and completed her education with a postdoctoral in virology at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.