@article{LodhaMuchsinJuergesetal.2023, author = {Lodha, Manivel and Muchsin, Ihsan and J{\"u}rges, Christopher and Juranic Lisnic, Vanda and L'Hernault, Anne and Rutkowski, Andrzej J. and Prusty, Bhupesh K. and Grothey, Arnhild and Milic, Andrea and Hennig, Thomas and Jonjic, Stipan and Friedel, Caroline C. and Erhard, Florian and D{\"o}lken, Lars}, title = {Decoding murine cytomegalovirus}, series = {PLOS Pathogens}, volume = {19}, journal = {PLOS Pathogens}, number = {5}, issn = {1553-7374}, doi = {10.1371/journal.ppat.1010992}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-350480}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The genomes of both human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) were first sequenced over 20 years ago. Similar to HCMV, the MCMV genome had initially been proposed to harbor ≈170 open reading frames (ORFs). More recently, omics approaches revealed HCMV gene expression to be substantially more complex comprising several hundred viral ORFs. Here, we provide a state-of-the art reannotation of lytic MCMV gene expression based on integrative analysis of a large set of omics data. Our data reveal 365 viral transcription start sites (TiSS) that give rise to 380 and 454 viral transcripts and ORFs, respectively. The latter include 200 small ORFs, some of which represented the most highly expressed viral gene products. By combining TiSS profiling with metabolic RNA labelling and chemical nucleotide conversion sequencing (dSLAM-seq), we provide a detailed picture of the expression kinetics of viral transcription. This not only resulted in the identification of a novel MCMV immediate early transcript encoding the m166.5 ORF, which we termed ie4, but also revealed a group of well-expressed viral transcripts that are induced later than canonical true late genes and contain an initiator element (Inr) but no TATA- or TATT-box in their core promoters. We show that viral upstream ORFs (uORFs) tune gene expression of longer viral ORFs expressed in cis at translational level. Finally, we identify a truncated isoform of the viral NK-cell immune evasin m145 arising from a viral TiSS downstream of the canonical m145 mRNA. Despite being ≈5-fold more abundantly expressed than the canonical m145 protein it was not required for downregulating the NK cell ligand, MULT-I. In summary, our work will pave the way for future mechanistic studies on previously unknown cytomegalovirus gene products in an important virus animal model.}, language = {en} } @article{WhisnantJuergesHennigetal.2020, author = {Whisnant, Adam W. and J{\"u}rges, Christopher S. and Hennig, Thomas and Wyler, Emanuel and Prusty, Bhupesh and Rutkowski, Andrzej J. and L'hernault, Anne and Djakovic, Lara and G{\"o}bel, Margarete and D{\"o}ring, Kristina and Menegatti, Jennifer and Antrobus, Robin and Matheson, Nicholas J. and K{\"u}nzig, Florian W. H. and Mastrobuoni, Guido and Bielow, Chris and Kempa, Stefan and Liang, Chunguang and Dandekar, Thomas and Zimmer, Ralf and Landthaler, Markus and Gr{\"a}sser, Friedrich and Lehner, Paul J. and Friedel, Caroline C. and Erhard, Florian and D{\"o}lken, Lars}, title = {Integrative functional genomics decodes herpes simplex virus 1}, series = {Nature Communications}, volume = {11}, journal = {Nature Communications}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-15992-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-229884}, year = {2020}, abstract = {The predicted 80 open reading frames (ORFs) of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) have been intensively studied for decades. Here, we unravel the complete viral transcriptome and translatome during lytic infection with base-pair resolution by computational integration of multi-omics data. We identify a total of 201 transcripts and 284 ORFs including all known and 46 novel large ORFs. This includes a so far unknown ORF in the locus deleted in the FDA-approved oncolytic virus Imlygic. Multiple transcript isoforms expressed from individual gene loci explain translation of the vast majority of ORFs as well as N-terminal extensions (NTEs) and truncations. We show that NTEs with non-canonical start codons govern the subcellular protein localization and packaging of key viral regulators and structural proteins. We extend the current nomenclature to include all viral gene products and provide a genome browser that visualizes all the obtained data from whole genome to single-nucleotide resolution. Here, using computational integration of multi-omics data, the authors provide a detailed transcriptome and translatome of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), including previously unidentified ORFs and N-terminal extensions. The study also provides a HSV-1 genome browser and should be a valuable resource for further research.}, language = {en} } @article{HennigMichalskiRutkowskietal.2018, author = {Hennig, Thomas and Michalski, Marco and Rutkowski, Andrzej J. and Djakovic, Lara and Whisnant, Adam W. and Friedl, Marie-Sophie and Jha, Bhaskar Anand and Baptista, Marisa A. P. and L'Hernault, Anne and Erhard, Florian and D{\"o}lken, Lars and Friedel, Caroline C.}, title = {HSV-1-induced disruption of transcription termination resembles a cellular stress response but selectively increases chromatin accessibility downstream of genes}, series = {PLoS Pathogens}, volume = {14}, journal = {PLoS Pathogens}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1371/journal.ppat.1006954}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-176350}, pages = {e1006954}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Lytic herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infection triggers disruption of transcription termination (DoTT) of most cellular genes, resulting in extensive intergenic transcription. Similarly, cellular stress responses lead to gene-specific transcription downstream of genes (DoG). In this study, we performed a detailed comparison of DoTT/DoG transcription between HSV-1 infection, salt and heat stress in primary human fibroblasts using 4sU-seq and ATAC-seq. Although DoTT at late times of HSV-1 infection was substantially more prominent than DoG transcription in salt and heat stress, poly(A) read-through due to DoTT/DoG transcription and affected genes were significantly correlated between all three conditions, in particular at earlier times of infection. We speculate that HSV-1 either directly usurps a cellular stress response or disrupts the transcription termination machinery in other ways but with similar consequences. In contrast to previous reports, we found that inhibition of Ca\(^{2+}\) signaling by BAPTA-AM did not specifically inhibit DoG transcription but globally impaired transcription. Most importantly, HSV-1-induced DoTT, but not stress-induced DoG transcription, was accompanied by a strong increase in open chromatin downstream of the affected poly(A) sites. In its extent and kinetics, downstream open chromatin essentially matched the poly(A) read-through transcription. We show that this does not cause but rather requires DoTT as well as high levels of transcription into the genomic regions downstream of genes. This raises intriguing new questions regarding the role of histone repositioning in the wake of RNA Polymerase II passage downstream of impaired poly(A) site recognition.}, language = {en} } @article{RutkowskiErhardL'Hernaultetal.2015, author = {Rutkowski, Andrzej J. and Erhard, Florian and L'Hernault, Anne and Bonfert, Thomas and Schilhabel, Markus and Crump, Colin and Rosenstiel, Philip and Efstathiou, Stacey and Zimmer, Ralf and Friedel, Caroline C. and D{\"o}lken, Lars}, title = {Widespread disruption of host transcription termination in HSV-1 infection}, series = {Nature Communications}, volume = {6}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {7126}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms8126}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148643}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) is an important human pathogen and a paradigm for virus-induced host shut-off. Here we show that global changes in transcription and RNA processing and their impact on translation can be analysed in a single experimental setting by applying 4sU-tagging of newly transcribed RNA and ribosome profiling to lytic HSV-1 infection. Unexpectedly, we find that HSV-1 triggers the disruption of transcription termination of cellular, but not viral, genes. This results in extensive transcription for tens of thousands of nucleotides beyond poly(A) sites and into downstream genes, leading to novel intergenic splicing between exons of neighbouring cellular genes. As a consequence, hundreds of cellular genes seem to be transcriptionally induced but are not translated. In contrast to previous reports, we show that HSV-1 does not inhibit co-transcriptional splicing. Our approach thus substantially advances our understanding of HSV-1 biology and establishes HSV-1 as a model system for studying transcription termination.}, language = {en} } @article{MurakawaHinzMothesetal.2015, author = {Murakawa, Yasuhiro and Hinz, Michael and Mothes, Janina and Schuetz, Anja and Uhl, Michael and Wyler, Emanuel and Yasuda, Tomoharu and Mastrobuoni, Guido and Friedel, Caroline C. and D{\"o}lken, Lars and Kempa, Stefan and Schmidt-Supprian, Marc and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nils and Backofen, Rolf and Heinemann, Udo and Wolf, Jana and Scheidereit, Claus and Landthaler, Markus}, title = {RC3H1 post-transcriptionally regulates A20 mRNA and modulates the activity of the IKK/NF-\(\kappa\)B pathway}, series = {Nature Communications}, volume = {6}, journal = {Nature Communications}, number = {7367}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms8367}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-151596}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The RNA-binding protein RC3H1 (also known as ROQUIN) promotes TNF\(\alpha\) mRNA decay via a 3'UTR constitutive decay element (CDE). Here we applied PAR-CLIP to human RC3H1 to identify ~3,800 mRNA targets with >16,000 binding sites. A large number of sites are distinct from the consensus CDE and revealed a structure-sequence motif with U-rich sequences embedded in hairpins. RC3H1 binds preferentially short-lived and DNA damage-induced mRNAs, indicating a role of this RNA-binding protein in the post-transcriptional regulation of the DNA damage response. Intriguingly, RC3H1 affects expression of the NF-\(\kappa\)B pathway regulators such as I\(\kappa\)B\(\alpha\) and A20. RC3H1 uses ROQ and Zn-finger domains to contact a binding site in the A20 3'UTR, demonstrating a not yet recognized mode of RC3H1 binding. Knockdown of RC3H1 resulted in increased A20 protein expression, thereby interfering with I\(\kappa\)B kinase and NF-\(\kappa\)B activities, demonstrating that RC3H1 can modulate the activity of the IKK/NF-\(\kappa\)B pathway.}, language = {en} }