Gowri Kalugotla

Program: Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Current advisor: Megan T. Baldridge, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: Yale University, 2016

Enrollment year: 2018

Research summary
In vivo murine norovirus evolution confers pathogenic potential via a single amino acid change

This past summer I worked in the lab of Megan Baldridge on an in vivo viral evolution study with murine norovirus. My work in the lab was based on an ongoing project in which a non-lethal, persistent strain of murine norovirus, CR6, developed phenotypic features that resemble a lethal, non-persistent strain of the virus, CW3, after only two rounds of intercranial passaging in immunocompromised mice. The lab used a reverse genetics approach to generate mutant viruses that recapitulated the genetic changes that occurred during passaging. They found that a single amino acid change in the capsid region of CR6 conferred the phenotypic features of CW3. My role in the lab was to further elucidate the phenotype of the mutant virus in order to elucidate the impact of this single amino acid change on virulence. I worked on confirming preliminary data on tissue tropism and lethality in vivo and on the time course of the infection in vitro.

Graduate publications
Ingle H, Hassan E, Gawron J, Mihi B, Li Y, Kennedy EA, Kalugotla G, Makimaa H, Lee S, Desai P, McDonald KG, Diamond MS, Newberry RD, Good M, Baldridge MT. 2021 Murine astrovirus tropism for goblet cells and enterocytes facilitates an IFN-λ response in vivo and in enteroid cultures. Mucosal Immunol, 14(3):751-61.

Lee S, Kalugotla G, Ingle H, Rodgers R, Wu C, Wang Y, Li Y, Yang X, Zhang J, Borella NR, Deng H, Droit L, Hill R, Peterson ST, Desai C, Lawrence D, Lu Q, Baldridge MT. 2021 Intestinal antiviral signaling is controlled by autophagy gene Epg5 independent of the microbiota. Autophagy, ():1-16.

Walker FC, Hassan E, Peterson ST, Rodgers R, Schriefer LA, Thompson CE, Li Y, Kalugotla G, Blum-Johnston C, Lawrence D, McCune BT, Graziano VR, Lushniak L, Lee S, Roth AN, Karst SM, Nice TJ, Miner JJ, Wilen CB, Baldridge MT. 2021 Norovirus evolution in immunodeficient mice reveals potentiated pathogenicity via a single nucleotide change in the viral capsid. PLoS Pathog, 17(3):e100940.