EIF2A and infection: However, picornavirus infection can cause eIF2α phosphorylation, and translation may show a dual mechanism of eIF2 involvement: eIF2α phosphorylation was shown to block EMCV RNA translation in the early infection stages, synthesizing the proteins necessary for genome replication, whereas in the late EMCV infection phase, viral protein synthesis could occur in the presence of eIF2α phosphorylation [90].