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Morgens DW, Gulyas L, Rivera-Madera A, Souza AS, Glaunsinger BA. From enhancers to genome conformation: complex transcriptional control underlies expression of a single herpesviral gene. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.07.08.548212. [PMID: 37461644 PMCID: PMC10350069 DOI: 10.1101/2023.07.08.548212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
Complex transcriptional control is a conserved feature of both eukaryotes and the viruses that infect them. Here, we illustrate this by combining high-density functional genomics, expression profiling, and viral-specific chromosome conformation capture to define with unprecedented detail the transcriptional regulation of a single gene, ORF68, from Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). We first identified seven cis-regulatory regions by densely tiling the ~154 kb KSHV genome with CRISPRi. A parallel Cas9 nuclease screen indicated that three of these regions act as promoters of genes that regulate ORF68. RNA expression profiling demonstrated that three more of these regions act by either repressing or enhancing other distal viral genes involved in ORF68 transcriptional regulation. Finally, we tracked how the 3D structure of the viral genome changes during its lifecycle, revealing that these enhancing regulatory elements are physically closer to their targets when active, and that disrupting some elements caused large-scale changes to the 3D genome. These data enable us to construct a complete model revealing that the mechanistic diversity of this essential regulatory circuit matches that of human genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- David W Morgens
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Leah Gulyas
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Britt A Glaunsinger
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UC Berkeley, CA, USA
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Ye X, Guerin LN, Chen Z, Rajendren S, Dunker W, Zhao Y, Zhang R, Hodges E, Karijolich J. Enhancer-promoter activation by the Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus episome maintenance protein LANA. Cell Rep 2024; 43:113888. [PMID: 38416644 PMCID: PMC11005752 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Revised: 12/29/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Higher-order genome structure influences the transcriptional regulation of cellular genes through the juxtaposition of regulatory elements, such as enhancers, close to promoters of target genes. While enhancer activation has emerged as an important facet of Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) biology, the mechanisms controlling enhancer-target gene expression remain obscure. Here, we discover that the KSHV genome tethering protein latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) potentiates enhancer-target gene expression in primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), a highly aggressive B cell lymphoma causally associated with KSHV. Genome-wide analyses demonstrate increased levels of enhancer RNA transcription as well as activating chromatin marks at LANA-bound enhancers. 3D genome conformation analyses identified genes critical for latency and tumorigenesis as targets of LANA-occupied enhancers, and LANA depletion results in their downregulation. These findings reveal a mechanism in enhancer-gene coordination and describe a role through which the main KSHV tethering protein regulates essential gene expression in PEL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Ye
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Lindsey N Guerin
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Ziche Chen
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Suba Rajendren
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - William Dunker
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Yang Zhao
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Ruilin Zhang
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Emily Hodges
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - John Karijolich
- Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
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Wu BW, Yee MB, Goldstein RS, Kinchington PR. Antiviral Targeting of Varicella Zoster Virus Replication and Neuronal Reactivation Using CRISPR/Cas9 Cleavage of the Duplicated Open Reading Frames 62/71. Viruses 2022; 14:v14020378. [PMID: 35215971 PMCID: PMC8880005 DOI: 10.3390/v14020378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) causes Herpes Zoster (HZ), a common debilitating and complicated disease affecting up to a third of unvaccinated populations. Novel antiviral treatments for VZV reactivation and HZ are still in need. Here, we evaluated the potential of targeting the replicating and reactivating VZV genome using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat-Cas9 nucleases (CRISPR/Cas9) delivered by adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. After AAV serotype and guide RNA (gRNA) optimization, we report that a single treatment with AAV2-expressing Staphylococcus aureus CRISPR/Cas9 (saCas9) with gRNA to the duplicated and essential VZV genes ORF62/71 (AAV2-62gRsaCas9) greatly reduced VZV progeny yield and cell-to-cell spread in representative epithelial cells and in lytically infected human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived neurons. In contrast, AAV2-62gRsaCas9 did not reduce the replication of a recombinant virus mutated in the ORF62 targeted sequence, establishing that antiviral effects were a consequence of VZV-genome targeting. Delivery to latently infected and reactivation-induced neuron cultures also greatly reduced infectious-virus production. These results demonstrate the potential of AAV-delivered genome editors to limit VZV productive replication in epithelial cells, infected human neurons, and upon reactivation. The approach could be developed into a strategy for the treatment of VZV disease and virus spread in HZ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Betty W. Wu
- Graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA;
- Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA;
| | - Michael B. Yee
- Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA;
| | | | - Paul R. Kinchington
- Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA;
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-412-647-6319
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Morgens DW, Nandakumar D, Didychuk AL, Yang KJ, Glaunsinger BA. A Two-tiered functional screen identifies herpesviral transcriptional modifiers and their essential domains. PLoS Pathog 2022; 18:e1010236. [PMID: 35041709 PMCID: PMC8797222 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Revised: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
While traditional methods for studying large DNA viruses allow the creation of individual mutants, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used to rapidly create thousands of mutant dsDNA viruses in parallel, enabling the pooled screening of entire viral genomes. Here, we applied this approach to Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) by designing a sgRNA library containing all possible ~22,000 guides targeting the 154 kilobase viral genome, corresponding to one cut site approximately every 8 base pairs. We used the library to profile viral sequences involved in transcriptional activation of late genes, whose regulation involves several well characterized features including dependence on viral DNA replication and a known set of viral transcriptional activators. Upon phenotyping all possible Cas9-targeted viruses for transcription of KSHV late genes we recovered these established regulators and identified a new required factor (ORF46), highlighting the utility of the screening pipeline. By performing targeted deep sequencing of the viral genome to distinguish between knock-out and in-frame alleles created by Cas9, we identify the DNA binding but not catalytic domain of ORF46 to be required for viral DNA replication and thus late gene expression. Our pooled Cas9 tiling screen followed by targeted deep viral sequencing represents a two-tiered screening paradigm that may be widely applicable to dsDNA viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- David W. Morgens
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (DM); (BG)
| | - Divya Nandakumar
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Allison L. Didychuk
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Kevin J. Yang
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
| | - Britt A. Glaunsinger
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (DM); (BG)
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