A comparative epigenome analysis of gammaherpesviruses suggests cis-acting sequence features as critical mediators of rapid polycomb recruitment.

ABSTRACT: Latent Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) genomes rapidly acquire distinct patterns of the activating histone modification H3K4-me3 as well as repressive H3K27-me3 marks, a modification linked to transcriptional silencing by polycomb repressive complexes (PRC). Interestingly, PRCs have recently been reported to restrict viral gene expression in a number of other viral systems, suggesting they may play a broader role in controlling viral chromatin. If so, it is an intriguing possibility that latency establishment may result from viral subversion of polycomb-mediated host responses to exogenous DNA. To investigate such scenarios we sought to establish whether rapid repression by PRC constitutes a general hallmark of herpesvirus latency. For this purpose, we performed a comparative

SUBMITTER: Gunther T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6932816 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature