Systematic Discovery of Pathogen Effector Functions across Human Pathogens and Pathways

We developed the eORFeome, a scalable functional genomics platform encompassing 3,835 effector ORFs from diverse viruses, bacteria, and parasites. High-throughput barcoded screens across NFκB, apoptosis, p53, cGAS–STING and MHC-I pathways revealed functions for hundreds of uncharacterized eORFs, unexpected new activities for known effectors, and distinct pathway-specific functions encoded by single ORFs.

Illustrating the power of the approach, we identify HHV6A U14 as a p53 antagonist, HHV7 U21 as a dual-function STING antagonist and MHC-I antigen display inhibitor, and adenoviral 13.6K/i-leader protein as a de novo evolved TAP inhibitor that suppresses MHC-I display. These results establish a general framework for systematic effector annotation, uncover new mechanisms of host–pathogen interaction across kingdoms, and highlight pathogen effectors as a versatile toolkit for rewiring and probing human cellular pathways.