Involvement of DNA damage response pathway in RNA virus infection in the nucleus

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25860336
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Virology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: HONDA Tomoyuki 京都大学, ウイルス研究所, 助教 (80402676)
• Research Collaborator: HIRAI Yuya ; SOFUKU Kozue
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: RNAウイルス / 核 / DNA損傷 / DNA損傷修復系

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Many environmental and physiological factors, such as infection of DNA viruses, can directly induce genome DNA damages and activate DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. Unlike DNA viruses, infection in the nucleus is uncommon for RNA viruses. Therefore, interaction between RNA virus and DDR pathways has been largely unknown.
Borna disease virus (BDV), a non-segmented, negative strand RNA virus, can establish persistent infection in the nucleus. BDV generates viral speckles of transcripts (vSPOTs) in the nucleus as the viral replication compartment. In this study, we found that γH2AX co-localizes with vSPOTs. On the other hand, neither acute nor persistent infection of BDV could activate DDR in infected cells. Furthermore, the inhibition of DDR altered the balance between BDV transcription and replication in the infected cells. These observations suggested that BDV may locate preferably at the DDR focus to regulate its balance between replication and transcritption.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学