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The herpes simplex virus host shutoff RNase degrades cellular and viral mRNAs made before infection but not viral mRNA made after infection.

ABSTRACT: A herpes simplex virus tegument protein brought into the cell during infection and designated the virion host shutoff protein (VHS) is an endoribonuclease that degrades mRNA. The prevailing view for many years has been that the VHS-RNase does not discriminate between cellular and viral RNAs and that the viruses prevail because the accumulation of viral transcripts outpaces their degradation. Here we report the following. (i) The degradation of viral mRNA made during infection of Vero or HEp-2 cells proceeds at a much-reduced rate compared to that of cellular mRNA. In effect, viral mRNAs are largely stable, whereas cellular mRNAs are rapidly degraded or, in the case of AU-rich mRNA, cleaved and rendered dysfunctional. (ii) In contrast to viral mRNAs made after infection, viral mRNAs expressed by plasmids transfected into cells prior to infection are degraded after infection at a rate comparable to that of cellular mRNAs. Moreover, the mRNA encoded by the transfected plasmid is hyperadenylated in the infected cell. Hyperadenylation but not degradation of mRNAs is blocked by actinomycin D. The results indicate that VHS-mRNA discriminates between viral and cellular mRNA but only in the context of infection and that discrimination is not based on the sequence of the mRNA but most likely on one or more viral factors expressed in the infected cell.

SUBMITTER: Taddeo B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3624343 | biostudies-other | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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The herpes simplex virus host shutoff RNase degrades cellular and viral mRNAs made before infection but not viral mRNA made after infection.

Taddeo Brunella B Zhang Weiran W Roizman Bernard B

Journal of virology 20130206 8

A herpes simplex virus tegument protein brought into the cell during infection and designated the virion host shutoff protein (VHS) is an endoribonuclease that degrades mRNA. The prevailing view for many years has been that the VHS-RNase does not discriminate between cellular and viral RNAs and that the viruses prevail because the accumulation of viral transcripts outpaces their degradation. Here we report the following. (i) The degradation of viral mRNA made during infection of Vero or HEp-2 ce ...[more]

PMID: 23388723

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Project description:Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) utilizes cellular RNA polymerase II (Pol) to transcribe its genes in one of two phases. In the latent phase, viral transcription is highly restricted, but during the productive lytic phase, more than 80 genes are expressed in a temporally coordinated cascade. In this study, we used Precision nuclear Run On followed by deep Sequencing (PRO-Seq) to characterize early viral transcriptional events using HSV-1 immediate early (IE) gene mutants, corresponding genetically repaired viruses, and wild-type virus. Unexpectedly, in the absence of the IE genes ICP4, ICP22, and ICP0 at 1.5 hours postinfection (hpi), we observed high levels of aberrant transcriptional activity across the mutant viral genomes but substantially less on either wild-type or the congenic repaired virus genomes. This feature was particularly prominent in the absence of ICP4 expression. Cycloheximide treatment during infection with both the ICP4 and ICP22 mutants and their respective genetic repairs did not alter the relative distribution of Pol activity, but it increased overall activity across both viral genomes, indicating that both virion components and at least some de novo protein synthesis were required for full repression. Overall, these data reveal that prior to their role in transcriptional activation, IE gene products and virion components first repress transcription and that the HSV-1 lytic transcriptional cascade is mediated through subsequent derepression steps. IMPORTANCE HSV-1 transcription during productive replication is believed to comprise a series of activation steps leading to a specific sequence of gene expression. Here, we show that virion components and IE gene products ICP0, ICP4, and ICP22 first repress viral gene transcription to various degrees before subsequently activating specific gene subsets. It follows that the entire HSV transcriptional program involves a series of steps to sequentially reverse this repression. This previously uncharacterized repressive activity of IE genes very early in infection may represent an important checkpoint allowing HSV-1 to orchestrate either the robust lytic transcriptional cascade or the more restricted transcriptional program during latency.

Dataset Information

The herpes simplex virus host shutoff RNase degrades cellular and viral mRNAs made before infection but not viral mRNA made after infection.

Publications

The herpes simplex virus host shutoff RNase degrades cellular and viral mRNAs made before infection but not viral mRNA made after infection.

Similar Datasets

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