High Specificity in Disordered Domains of The Glycoprotein in The Family Rhabdoviridae

Rhabdoviruses consist of several genomically diverse and important pathogens of human-, animal- and plant-infecting viruses that replicate in their vectors and are persistently transmitted in a circulative-propagative mode. It is still hypothesized that plant-pathogenic rhabdoviruses are derived from arthropod-borne viruses, while, the essential plant rhabdoviral Glycoprotein is still PFAM-unassigned and poorly characterized. Over the last decade, the expansion of viral high-throughput sequencing-generated proteomic data have paved the way for novel evolutionary and biological interpretations. To address this, we combined data visualization with an ML-driven computational approach implemented on analysis of protein biophysical properties to study glycoproteins among rhabdoviruses. The results indicate that diverse vector-specific Gps within plant-pathogenic rhabdoviruses exhibit distinct conformational variability landscapes in intrinsically disordered regions while sharing common patterns with insect rhabdoviruses. Combining data visualization with proteomic features in our alignment-free approach will open novel avenues for viral proteomics.