The Zika virus has seven proteins that cause illnesses of infected persons. Scientists from the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine identified these Zika proteins for the first time through an experiment using fission yeast cells as a model.

Dr. Richard Zhao, who conducted a research on HIV using fission yeast cells, led the team of scientists. 

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As part of the experiment, yeast cells are exposed to the dissected Zika genomes to see how each Zika protein kills cells and cause damages.

This finding backs a previous research by cell biologists in San Francisco California where brain cells were found to have been destroyed by Zika virus causing microcephaly in newborn babies. Rats in science laboratories are commonly used in tests, but as study methods improve, many scientists are now using fission yeast cells which actively react with viruses and other microorganisms.  

Birth defects such as microcephaly and other neurological disorders are known some of the effects of the Zika virus. Seven key proteins in the Zika virus out of fourteen were found to be the cause of the damages to the exposed fission yeast cells in the experiment.

Dr. Richard Zhao, professor of pathology, and his co-authors, J. Marc Simard, professor of Neurosurgery, and Robert C. Gallo, the director of Institute of Human Virology, conducted this research and will conduct another one in the future.