Elife . Viral-induced alternative splicing of host genes promotes influenza replication

[tetano]

Elife


. 2020 Dec 3;9:e55500.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.55500. Online ahead of print.
Viral-induced alternative splicing of host genes promotes influenza replication


Matthew G Thompson ¹ , Mark Dittmar ² , Michael J Mallory ¹ , Prasanna Bhat ³ , Max B Ferretti ¹ , Beatriz Ma Fontoura ³ , Sara Cherry ² , Kristen W Lynch ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 33269701
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.55500

Free article

Abstract

Viral infection induces the expression of numerous host genes that impact the outcome of infection. Here we show that infection of human lung epithelial cells with Influenza A virus (IAV) also induces a broad program of alternative splicing of host genes. While these splicing-regulated genes are not enriched for canonical regulators of viral infection, we find that many of these genes do impact replication of IAV. Moreover, in several cases, specific inhibition of the IAV-induced splicing pattern also attenuates viral infection. We further show that approximately a quarter of the IAV-induced splicing events are regulated by hnRNP K, a host protein required for efficient splicing of the IAV M transcript in nuclear speckles. Finally, we find an increase in hnRNP K in nuclear speckles upon IAV infection, which may alter accessibility of hnRNP K for host transcripts thereby leading to a program of host splicing changes that promote IAV replication.

Keywords: chromosomes; gene expression; human.