Project description:Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a multifunctional protein expressed by the Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) in latently-infected cells, is required for stable maintenance of the viral episome. This is mediated by two interactions: LANA binds to specific sequences (LBS1 and 2) on viral DNA, and also engages host histones, tethering the viral genome to host chromosomes in mitosis. LANA has also been suggested to affect host gene expression, but both the mechanism(s) and role of this dysregulation in KSHV biology remain unclear. Here we have examined LANA interactions with host chromatin on a genome-wide scale using ChIP-seq, and show that LANA predominantly targets human genes near their transcriptional start sites (TSSs). These host LANA-binding sites are generally found within transcriptionally active promoters and display striking overrepresentation of a consensus DNA sequence virtually identical to the LBS1 motif in KSHV DNA. Comparison of the ChIP-seq profile with whole transcriptome (RNA-seq) data reveals that few of the genes that are differentially regulated in latent infection are occupied by LANA at their promoters. This suggests that direct LANA binding to promoters is not the prime determinant of altered host transcription in KSHV-infected cells. Most surprisingly, the association of LANA to both host and viral DNA is strongly disrupted during the lytic cycle of KSHV. This disruption can be prevented by the inhibition of viral DNA synthesis, suggesting the existence of novel and potent regulatory mechanisms linked to either viral DNA replication or late gene expression. Profiling of KSHV LANA positioning on the host genome and examination of gene expression from promoters bound by KSHV LANA.
Project description:Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a multifunctional protein expressed by the Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) in latently-infected cells, is required for stable maintenance of the viral episome. This is mediated by two interactions: LANA binds to specific sequences (LBS1 and 2) on viral DNA, and also engages host histones, tethering the viral genome to host chromosomes in mitosis. LANA has also been suggested to affect host gene expression, but both the mechanism(s) and role of this dysregulation in KSHV biology remain unclear. Here we have examined LANA interactions with host chromatin on a genome-wide scale using ChIP-seq, and show that LANA predominantly targets human genes near their transcriptional start sites (TSSs). These host LANA-binding sites are generally found within transcriptionally active promoters and display striking overrepresentation of a consensus DNA sequence virtually identical to the LBS1 motif in KSHV DNA. Comparison of the ChIP-seq profile with whole transcriptome (RNA-seq) data reveals that few of the genes that are differentially regulated in latent infection are occupied by LANA at their promoters. This suggests that direct LANA binding to promoters is not the prime determinant of altered host transcription in KSHV-infected cells. Most surprisingly, the association of LANA to both host and viral DNA is strongly disrupted during the lytic cycle of KSHV. This disruption can be prevented by the inhibition of viral DNA synthesis, suggesting the existence of novel and potent regulatory mechanisms linked to either viral DNA replication or late gene expression.
Project description:LANA is essential for tethering the KSHV genome to metaphase chromosomes and for modulating host-cell gene expression, but the binding sites in the host-chromosome remain unknown. Here, we use LANA-specific chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-Seq) to identify LANA binding sites in the viral and host-cell genomes of a latently infected pleural effusion lymphoma cell line BCBL1. LANA bound with high occupancy to the KSHV genome terminal repeats (TR), and to a few minor binding sites within the latency control region encoding that LANA transcript. We identified 256 LANA binding peaks with p < 0.01 and overlap in two independent ChIP-Seq experiments. We validated several of the high-occupancy binding sites by conventional ChIP assays and quantitative PCR. Two candidate DNA sequence motifs were identified, and confirmed to bind purified LANA protein, although with weaker affinity compared to viral TR binding site. More than half of the LANA binding sites (170/256) could be mapped to within 2.5 kb of a cellular gene transcript. Pathways and Gene Ontogeny (GO) analysis revealed that LANA binds to genes within the p53 and TNF regulatory network. Further analysis revealed partial overlap of LANA binding sites with STAT1 binding sites in several interferon (IFN)-g regulated genes. We show that ectopic expression of LANA can down-modulate IFN-g mediated activation of a subset of genes, including the TAP1 peptide transporter and proteasome subunit beta type 9 (PSMB9) required for class I antigen presentation. Our data provides a potential mechanism through which LANA may regulate several host cell pathways by direct binding to gene regulatory elements. Study of KSHV LANA
Project description:Kaposi’s Sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic human virus and leading cause of mortality in HIV infection. Reactivation of KSHV from latent to lytic stage infection initiates a cascade of viral gene expression, and here we show how these changes remodel the host cell proteome to enable viral replication. By undertaking a systematic and unbiased analysis of changes to the endothelial cell proteome following lytic KSHV reactivation, we quantify >7000 cellular and 71 viral proteins. Lytic KSHV infection resulted in >2-fold downregulation of 291 cellular proteins, including PKR, the key cellular sensor of double-stranded RNA. A complementary KSHV genome-wide CRISPR genetic screen identified K5 as the viral gene responsible for the downregulation of two novel KSHV targets, Nectin-2 and CD155, both ligands of the NK cell DNAM-1 receptor. Despite the high episome copy number, we show that CRISPR Cas9 provides a remarkably efficient way to target KSHV genomes.
Project description:Kaposi’s Sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic human virus and leading cause of mortality in HIV infection. Reactivation of KSHV from latent to lytic stage infection initiates a cascade of viral gene expression, and here we show how these changes remodel the host cell proteome to enable viral replication. By undertaking a systematic and unbiased analysis of changes to the endothelial cell proteome following lytic KSHV reactivation, we quantify >7000 cellular and 71 viral proteins. Lytic KSHV infection resulted in >2-fold downregulation of 291 cellular proteins, including PKR, the key cellular sensor of double-stranded RNA. A complementary KSHV genome-wide CRISPR genetic screen identified K5 as the viral gene responsible for the downregulation of two novel KSHV targets, Nectin-2 and CD155, both ligands of the NK cell DNAM-1 receptor. Despite the high episome copy number, we show that CRISPR Cas9 provides a remarkably efficient way to target KSHV genomes.
Project description:Primari effusion lymphoma are (PEL) patient-derived transformed B-cells harboring latent Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). The treatment of PEL cells with valproic acid (VA) leads to reactivation of KSHV and viral lytic replication. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effect of KSHV lytic infection on expression of the host transcriptome.
Project description:Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a g-herpesvirus which persists as circular extrachromasomal DNA in the nucleus during latent infection. During latency a limited number of viral proteins are expressed, including LANA (latency-associated nuclear antigen). LANA is a multi-functional protein known to interact with transcriptional regulators and chromatin remodelers, and to regulate the LANA and RTA promoters. We hypothesized that LANA may contribute to the establishment of latency through controlling chromatinization and histone modification of KSHV episomes. We performed ChIP-seq analysis and correlated H3K4me3, H3K27me3, polII, and LANA occupancy of the KSHV genome at nucleotide resolution. Epigenetic marks were analyzed in BCBL-1 lymphoid cells and in telomerase-immortalized vein endothelial TIVE-LTC cells. We found that the transcription active mark H3K4me3, but not silencing mark H3K27me3, was enriched at KSHV regions where LANA is bound. Co-occupancy of LANA and H3K4 was also detected on 167 host genes, of which 89 are actively transcribed. By comparing LANA occupancy with the profiling of 43 transcription factors from ENCODE, a subset of transcription factors was enriched at regions where LANA is bound, including znf143, CTCF, and Stat1. These results indicate that LANA also plays a role in modulating expression of host genes. Co-immunoprecipitation of LANA with the H3K4 methyltransferase hSET1 suggests that LANA recruits hSET1 to specific loci on the viral genome, leading to H3K4 methylation and ensuring transcription of latency-associated genes. Host gene expression may be regulated by the same mechanism. LANA binding was correlated with the distribution in the latent KSHV genome of the transcription active histone modification H3K4me3, the silencing mark H3K27me3, and RNA polymerase II, using cells of lymphoid and endothelial origin. A similar analysis was done for the human genome. Biological replicates (BR) and technical replicates (TR) were included.
Project description:Enhancers play indispensable roles in cell proliferation and survival through spatiotemporally regulating gene transcription. In addition, active enhancers and super-enhancers often produce noncoding enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) that precisely control RNA polymerase II activity. Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a human oncogenic gamma-2 herpesvirus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma and lymphoproliferative diseases of B-cell origin such as primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). It is well characterized that KSHV utilizes host epigenetic and nuclear machineries to control the switch between two life cycles, latency and lytic replication. However, how KSHV impacts the host epigenome at different stages of viral life cycle is not well understood. Using the analysis of global run-on sequencing (GRO-seq) and chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), we profiled the dynamics of host transcriptional regulatory elements during latency and lytic replication of KSHV-infected PEL cells. This study showed that a number of critical host genes for KSHV latency, including MYC proto-oncogene, were under the control of super-enhancers and eRNAs that were globally repressed upon viral reactivation. A combination of circular chromosome conformation capture combined with sequencing (4C-seq), GRO-seq and ChIP-seq indicated that the eRNA-expressing super-enhance regions were located at downstream of the MYC gene in KSHV-infected PELs. Treatment of an epigenetic drug to block enhancer function or shRNA-mediated depletion of the eRNA expression significantly reduced MYC mRNA expression in KSHV-infected PELs. Finally, while cellular IRF4 acted upon the eRNAs and super-enhancers for MYC expression during latency, the KSHV viral IRF4 repressed cellular IRF4 expression upon reactivation, decreasing MYC expression and thereby, facilitating lytic replication. Taken together, these data suggest that KSHV acts as an epigenetic driver that modifies host epigenomic status by effectively regulating enhancer function upon reactivation.
Project description:Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a g-herpesvirus which persists as circular extrachromasomal DNA in the nucleus during latent infection. During latency a limited number of viral proteins are expressed, including LANA (latency-associated nuclear antigen). LANA is a multi-functional protein known to interact with transcriptional regulators and chromatin remodelers, and to regulate the LANA and RTA promoters. We hypothesized that LANA may contribute to the establishment of latency through controlling chromatinization and histone modification of KSHV episomes. We performed ChIP-seq analysis and correlated H3K4me3, H3K27me3, polII, and LANA occupancy of the KSHV genome at nucleotide resolution. Epigenetic marks were analyzed in BCBL-1 lymphoid cells and in telomerase-immortalized vein endothelial TIVE-LTC cells. We found that the transcription active mark H3K4me3, but not silencing mark H3K27me3, was enriched at KSHV regions where LANA is bound. Co-occupancy of LANA and H3K4 was also detected on 167 host genes, of which 89 are actively transcribed. By comparing LANA occupancy with the profiling of 43 transcription factors from ENCODE, a subset of transcription factors was enriched at regions where LANA is bound, including znf143, CTCF, and Stat1. These results indicate that LANA also plays a role in modulating expression of host genes. Co-immunoprecipitation of LANA with the H3K4 methyltransferase hSET1 suggests that LANA recruits hSET1 to specific loci on the viral genome, leading to H3K4 methylation and ensuring transcription of latency-associated genes. Host gene expression may be regulated by the same mechanism.
Project description:The Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) genome consists of an approximately 140 kb unique coding region flanked by 30-40 copies of 0.8 kb terminal repeat (TR) sequence. KSHV genomes persist in latently infected cells as episomes via tethering to the host cell chromosomes, and KSHV latency associated nuclear antigen (LANA) plays a crucial role in latent episomal DNA replication and segregation during host cell mitosis by binding to TR. While TR's function in plasmid maintenance is well-established, TR’s transcription regulatory roles as gene enhancer has not been fully explored. Gene enhancer harbors transcription enzymes via arrays of transcription factors bindings and often forms phase separate nuclear body in part through recruitment of BRD4 and MED1 that contain intrinsically disordered domain. Here we show KSHV TR possesses transcription regulatory function with LANA. A series of Cleavage Under Targets & Release Using Nuclease (CUT&RUN) demonstrated that TR fragments are occupied by histone modifying enzymes that are known to interact with LANA in naturally infected cells, and the TR possessed characteristic enhancer histone modifications. The H3K4me3 and H3K27Ac modification were also conserved in unique region of the KSHV genome among three PEL cells, and the KSHV Origin of lytic replication (Ori-Lyt) showed similar protein and histone modification occupancies with TR's. In the Ori-Lyt region, the LANA protein complex colocalizes with H3K27Ac-modified nucleosome along with paused RNA polymerase II, and the nucleosome is franked by two K-Rta recruitment sites. The isolated reporter assays demonstrated that neighboring TR fragments enhanced viral lytic gene promoter activity independent of orientation in KSHV-infected and non-infected 293FT cells. K-Rta transactivation function was drastically enhanced with TR, while LANA acquired promoter repression function when the reporter was ligated with TR. The deletion of LANA acidic repeat sequence, a highly-disordered protein domain, further increased gene repression functions. Combined, the TR region is (i) an epigenetically active DNA element that is stitched within 12.5 kb (20-40 copies), (ii) has an array of transcription factor (LANA) binding sites, (iii) recruited by transcription related enzymes including BRD4 (bromodomain containing 4), (iv) decorated by histone H3K27Ac marks, and (v) possesses orientation-independent transcription activation function. KSHV TR is therefore an enhancer domain for KSHV inducible genes. However, in contrast to cellular enhancers that are bound by multiple transcription factors, perhaps KSHV enhancer is predominantly regulated by the LANA nuclear body on the TR. We suggest that KSHV evolved a clever mechanism to tightly control the latency-lytic switch with the TR/LANA complex.