Dataset Information

Loquacious modulates flaviviral RNA replication in mosquito cells.

ABSTRACT: Arthropod-borne viruses infect both mosquito and mammalian hosts. While much is known about virus-host interactions that modulate viral gene expression in their mammalian host, much less is known about the interactions that involve inhibition, subversion or avoidance strategies in the mosquito host. A novel RNA-Protein interaction detection assay was used to detect proteins that directly or indirectly bind to dengue viral genomes in infected mosquito cells. Membrane-associated mosquito proteins Sec61A1 and Loquacious (Loqs) were found to be in complex with the viral RNA. Depletion analysis demonstrated that both Sec61A1 and Loqs have pro-viral functions in the dengue viral infectious cycle. Co-localization and pull-down assays showed that Loqs interacts with viral protein NS3 and both full-length and subgenomic viral RNAs. While Loqs coats the entire positive-stranded viral RNA, it binds selectively to the 3' end of the negative-strand of the viral genome. In-depth analyses showed that the absence of Loqs did not affect translation or turnover of the viral RNA but modulated viral replication. Loqs also displayed pro-viral functions for several flaviviruses in infected mosquito cells, suggesting a conserved role for Loqs in flavivirus-infected mosquito cells.

SUBMITTER: Shivaprasad S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9089905 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Loquacious modulates flaviviral RNA replication in mosquito cells.

Shivaprasad Shwetha S Weng Kuo-Feng KF Ooi Yaw Shin YS Belk Julia J Carette Jan E JE Flynn Ryan R Sarnow Peter P

PLoS pathogens 20220428 4

Arthropod-borne viruses infect both mosquito and mammalian hosts. While much is known about virus-host interactions that modulate viral gene expression in their mammalian host, much less is known about the interactions that involve inhibition, subversion or avoidance strategies in the mosquito host. A novel RNA-Protein interaction detection assay was used to detect proteins that directly or indirectly bind to dengue viral genomes in infected mosquito cells. Membrane-associated mosquito proteins ...[more]

PMID: 35482886

Similar Datasets

Project description:Mosquito-borne dengue virus (DENV, genus Flavivirus) has emerged as a major threat to global human health in recent decades, and novel strategies to contain the escalating dengue fever pandemic are urgently needed. RNA interference (RNAi) induced by exogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has shown promise for treatment of flavivirus infections in hosts and prevention of transmission by vectors. However, the impact of RNAi triggered by authentic virus infection on replication of DENV, or any flavivirus, has received little study. The objectives of the current study were threefold: first, to assess the utility of Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells for the study of DENV, second to investigate the impact of multiple enzymes in the RNAi pathway on DENV replication; and third to test for variation in the response of the four serotypes of DENV to modulation of RNAi.Three strains from each of the four DENV serotypes showed replication in S2 cells following infection at multiplicity of infection (MOI) 0.1 and MOI 10; each strain achieved titers > 4.0 log10pfu/ml five days after infection at MOI 10. The four serotypes did not differ in mean titer. S2 cells infected with DENV-1, 2, 3 or 4 produced siRNAs, indicating that infection triggered an RNAi response. Knockdown of one of the major enzymes in the RNAi pathway, Dicer-2 (Dcr-2), resulted in a 10 to 100-fold enhancement of replication of all twelve strains of DENV in S2 cells. While serotypes did not differ in their average response to Dcr-2 knockdown, strains within serotypes showed significant differences in their sensitivity to Dcr-2 knockdown. Moreover, knockdown of three additional components of the RNAi pathway, Argonaute 2 (Ago-2), Dcr-1 and Ago-1, also resulted in a significant increase in replication of the two DENV strains tested, and the magnitude of this increase was similar to that resulting from Dcr-2 knockdown.These findings indicate that DENV can replicate in Drosophila S2 cells and that the RNAi pathway plays a role in modulating DENV replication in these cells. S2 cells offer a useful cell culture model for evaluation of the interaction between DENV and the RNAi response.

Project description:Endogenous viral elements derived from nonretroviral RNA viruses have been described in various animal genomes. Whether they have a biological function, such as host immune protection against related viruses, is a field of intense study. Here, we investigated the repertoire of endogenous flaviviral elements (EFVEs) in Aedes mosquitoes, the vectors of arboviruses such as dengue and chikungunya viruses. Previous studies identified three EFVEs from Aedes albopictus cell lines and one from Aedes aegypti cell lines. However, an in-depth characterization of EFVEs in wild-type mosquito populations and individual mosquitoes in vivo has not been performed. We detected the full-length DNA sequence of the previously described EFVEs and their respective transcripts in several A. albopictus and A. aegypti populations from geographically distinct areas. However, EFVE-derived proteins were not detected by mass spectrometry. Using deep sequencing, we detected the production of PIWI-interacting RNA-like small RNAs, in an antisense orientation, targeting the EFVEs and their flanking regions in vivo The EFVEs were integrated in repetitive regions of the mosquito genomes, and their flanking sequences varied among mosquito populations. We bioinformatically predicted several new EFVEs from a Vietnamese A. albopictus population and observed variation in the occurrence of those elements among mosquitoes. Phylogenetic analysis of an A. aegypti EFVE suggested that it integrated prior to the global expansion of the species and subsequently diverged among and within populations. The findings of this study together reveal the substantial structural and nucleotide diversity of flaviviral integrations in Aedes genomes. Unraveling this diversity will help to elucidate the potential biological function of these EFVEs.IMPORTANCE Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) are whole or partial viral sequences integrated in host genomes. Interestingly, some EVEs have important functions for host fitness and antiviral defense. Because mosquitoes also have EVEs in their genomes, characterizing these EVEs is a prerequisite for their potential use to manipulate the mosquito antiviral response. In the study described here, we focused on EVEs related to the Flavivirus genus, to which dengue and Zika viruses belong, in individual Aedes mosquitoes from geographically distinct areas. We show the existence in vivo of flaviviral EVEs previously identified in mosquito cell lines, and we detected new ones. We show that EVEs have evolved differently in each mosquito population. They produce transcripts and small RNAs but not proteins, suggesting a function at the RNA level. Our study uncovers the diverse repertoire of flaviviral EVEs in Aedes mosquito populations and contributes to an understanding of their role in the host antiviral system.

Project description:Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of arthropod-borne (arbo)viruses including dengue and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) but in contrast to human hosts, arbovirus-infected mosquitoes are able to efficiently control virus replication to sub-pathological levels. Yet, our knowledge of the molecular interactions of arboviruses with their mosquito hosts is incomplete. Here, we aimed to identify and characterize novel host genes that control arbovirus replication in Aedes mosquitoes. RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are well-known to regulate immune signaling pathways in all kingdoms of life. We therefore performed a knockdown screen targeting 461 genes encoding predicted RBPs in Aedes aegypti Aag2 cells and identified 15 genes with antiviral activity against Sindbis virus. Amongst these, the three DEAD-box RNA helicases AAEL004419/Dhx15, AAEL008728, and AAEL004859 also acted as antiviral factors in dengue and CHIKV infections. Here, we explored the mechanism of Dhx15 in regulating an antiviral transcriptional response in mosquitoes by silencing Dhx15 in Aag2 cells followed by deep-sequencing of poly-A enriched RNAs. Dhx15 knockdown in uninfected and CHIKV-infected cells resulted in differential expression of 856 and 372 genes, respectively. Interestingly, amongst the consistently downregulated genes, glycolytic process was the most enriched gene ontology (GO) term as the expression of all core enzymes of the glycolytic pathway was reduced, suggesting that Dhx15 regulates glycolytic function. A decrease in lactate production indicated that Dhx15 silencing indeed functionally impaired glycolysis. Modified rates of glycolytic metabolism have been implicated in controlling the replication of several classes of viruses and strikingly, infection of Aag2 cells with CHIKV by itself also resulted in the decrease of several glycolytic genes. Our data suggests that Dhx15 regulates replication of CHIKV, and possibly other arboviruses, by controlling glycolysis in mosquito cells.

Dataset Information

Loquacious modulates flaviviral RNA replication in mosquito cells.

Publications

Loquacious modulates flaviviral RNA replication in mosquito cells.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets