Non-encapsidation activities of the capsid proteins of positive-strand RNA viruses.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Ni P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3818703 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Human pathogenic positive single strand RNA ((+)ssRNA) viruses, including Chikungunya virus, pose severe health problems as for many neither efficient vaccines nor therapeutic strategies exist. To interfere with propagation, viral enzymatic activities are considered potential targets. Here we addressed the function of the viral macrodomains, conserved folds of non-structural proteins of many (+)ssRNA viruses. Macrodomains are closely associated with ADP-ribose function and metabolism. ADP-ribosylation is a post-translational modification controlling various cellular processes, including DNA repair, transcription and stress response. We found that the viral macrodomains possess broad hydrolase activity towards mono-ADP-ribosylated substrates of the mono-ADP-ribosyltransferases ARTD7, ARTD8 and ARTD10 (aka PARP15, PARP14 and PARP10, respectively), reverting this post-translational modification both in vitro and in cells. In contrast, the viral macrodomains possess only weak activity towards poly-ADP-ribose chains synthesized by ARTD1 (aka PARP1). Unlike poly-ADP-ribosylglycohydrolase, which hydrolyzes poly-ADP-ribose chains to individual ADP-ribose units but cannot cleave the amino acid side chain - ADP-ribose bond, the different viral macrodomains release poly-ADP-ribose chains with distinct efficiency. Mutational and structural analyses identified key amino acids for hydrolase activity of the Chikungunya viral macrodomain. Moreover, ARTD8 and ARTD10 are induced by innate immune mechanisms, suggesting that the control of mono-ADP-ribosylation is part of a host-pathogen conflict.
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Project description:Genome-wide screens are powerful approaches to unravel regulators of viral infections. Here, a CRISPR screen identifies the RNA helicase DDX42 as an intrinsic antiviral inhibitor of HIV-1. Depletion of endogenous DDX42 increases HIV-1 DNA accumulation and infection in cell lines and primary cells. DDX42 overexpression inhibits HIV-1 infection, whereas expression of a dominant-negative mutant increases infection. Importantly, DDX42 also restricts LINE-1 retrotransposition and infection with other retroviruses and positive-strand RNA viruses, including CHIKV and SARS-CoV-2. However, DDX42 does not impact the replication of several negative-strand RNA viruses, arguing against an unspecific effect on target cells, which is confirmed by RNA-seq analysis. Proximity ligation assays show DDX42 in the vicinity of viral elements, and cross-linking RNA immunoprecipitation confirms a specific interaction of DDX42 with RNAs from sensitive viruses. Moreover, recombinant DDX42 inhibits HIV-1 reverse transcription in vitro. Together, our data strongly suggest a direct mode of action of DDX42 on viral ribonucleoprotein complexes. Our results identify DDX42 as an intrinsic viral inhibitor, opening new perspectives to target the life cycle of numerous RNA viruses.
| S-SCDT-EMBOR-2021-54061V1 | biostudies-other
Project description:Many viruses interface with the autophagy pathway, a highly conserved process for recycling cellular components. For three viral infections in which autophagy constituents are proviral (poliovirus, dengue, and Zika), we developed a panel of knockouts (KOs) of autophagy-related genes to test which components of the canonical pathway are utilized. We discovered that each virus uses a distinct set of initiation components; however, all three viruses utilize autophagy-related gene 9 (ATG9), a lipid scavenging protein, and LC3 (light-chain 3), which is involved in membrane curvature. These results show that viruses use noncanonical routes for membrane sculpting and LC3 recruitment. By measuring viral RNA abundance, we also found that poliovirus utilizes these autophagy components for intracellular growth, while dengue and Zika virus only use autophagy components for post-RNA replication processes. Comparing how RNA viruses manipulate the autophagy pathway reveals new noncanonical autophagy routes, explains the exacerbation of disease by starvation, and uncovers common targets for antiviral drugs.
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Project description:The RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) encoded by the RNA viruses are a unique class of nucleic acid polymerases. Each viral RdRP contains a 500-600 residue catalytic module with palm, fingers, and thumb domains forming an encircled human right hand architecture. Seven polymerase catalytic motifs are located in the RdRP palm and fingers domains, comprising the most conserved parts of the RdRP and are responsible for the RNA-only specificity in catalysis. Functional regions are often found fused to the RdRP catalytic module, resulting in a high level of diversity in RdRP global structure and regulatory mechanism. In this review, we surveyed all 46 RdRP-sequence available virus families of the positive-strand RNA viruses listed in the 2018b collection of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy (ICTV) and chose a total of 49 RdRPs as representatives. By locating hallmark residues in RdRP catalytic motifs and by referencing structural and functional information in the literature, we were able to estimate the N- and C-terminal boundaries of the catalytic module in these RdRPs, which in turn serve as reference points to predict additional functional regions beyond the catalytic module. Interestingly, a large number of virus families may have additional regions fused to the RdRP N-terminus, while only a few of them have such regions on the C-terminal side of the RdRP. The current knowledge on these additional regions, either in three-dimensional (3D) structure or in function, is quite limited. In the five RdRP-structure available virus families in the positive-strand RNA viruses, only the Flaviviridae family has the 3D structural information resolved for such regions. Hence, future efforts to solve full-length RdRP structures containing these regions and to dissect the functional contribution of them are necessary to improve the overall understanding of the RdRP proteins as an evolutionarily integrated group, and our analyses here may serve as a guideline for selecting representative RdRP systems in these studies.
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Project description:unclassified ssRNA positive-strand viruses
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Project description:The current COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We demonstrate that despite the large size of the viral RNA genome (~30 kb), infectious full-length cDNA is readily assembled in vitro by a circular polymerase extension reaction (CPER) methodology without the need for technically demanding intermediate steps. Overlapping cDNA fragments are generated from viral RNA and assembled together with a linker fragment containing CMV promoter into a circular full-length viral cDNA in a single reaction. Transfection of the circular cDNA into mammalian cells results in the recovery of infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus that exhibits properties comparable to the parental virus in vitro and in vivo. CPER is also used to generate insect-specific Casuarina virus with ~20 kb genome and the human pathogens Ross River virus (Alphavirus) and Norovirus (Calicivirus), with the latter from a clinical sample. Additionally, reporter and mutant viruses are generated and employed to study virus replication and virus-receptor interactions.
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Project description:Reverse genetics, an approach to rescue infectious virus entirely from a cloned cDNA, has revolutionized the field of positive-strand RNA viruses, whose genomes have the same polarity as cellular mRNA. The cDNA-based reverse genetics system is a seminal method that enables direct manipulation of the viral genomic RNA, thereby generating recombinant viruses for molecular and genetic studies of both viral RNA elements and gene products in viral replication and pathogenesis. It also provides a valuable platform that allows the development of genetically defined vaccines and viral vectors for the delivery of foreign genes. For many positive-strand RNA viruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), however, the cloned cDNAs are unstable, posing a major obstacle to the construction and propagation of the functional cDNA. Here, the present report describes the strategic considerations in creating and amplifying a genetically stable full-length infectious JEV cDNA as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) using the following general experimental procedures: viral RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, cDNA subcloning and modification, assembly of a full-length cDNA, cDNA linearization, in vitro RNA synthesis, and virus recovery. This protocol provides a general methodology applicable to cloning full-length cDNA for a range of positive-strand RNA viruses, particularly those with a genome of >10 kb in length, into a BAC vector, from which infectious RNAs can be transcribed in vitro with a bacteriophage RNA polymerase.
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Project description:There are no known RNA viruses that infect Archaea. Filling this gap in our knowledge of viruses will enhance our understanding of the relationships between RNA viruses from the three domains of cellular life and, in particular, could shed light on the origin of the enormous diversity of RNA viruses infecting eukaryotes. We describe here the identification of novel RNA viral genome segments from high-temperature acidic hot springs in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. These hot springs harbor low-complexity cellular communities dominated by several species of hyperthermophilic Archaea. A viral metagenomics approach was taken to assemble segments of these RNA virus genomes from viral populations isolated directly from hot spring samples. Analysis of these RNA metagenomes demonstrated unique gene content that is not generally related to known RNA viruses of Bacteria and Eukarya. However, genes for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), a hallmark of positive-strand RNA viruses, were identified in two contigs. One of these contigs is approximately 5,600 nucleotides in length and encodes a polyprotein that also contains a region homologous to the capsid protein of nodaviruses, tetraviruses, and birnaviruses. Phylogenetic analyses of the RdRps encoded in these contigs indicate that the putative archaeal viruses form a unique group that is distinct from the RdRps of RNA viruses of Eukarya and Bacteria. Collectively, our findings suggest the existence of novel positive-strand RNA viruses that probably replicate in hyperthermophilic archaeal hosts and are highly divergent from RNA viruses that infect eukaryotes and even more distant from known bacterial RNA viruses. These positive-strand RNA viruses might be direct ancestors of RNA viruses of eukaryotes.
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