Influenza A virus cap-snatches host RNAs based on their abundance early after infection.

Dorota Sikora, Lynda Rocheleau, Earl G Brown, Martin Pelchat

Virology 2017 Sep

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The influenza A virus RNA polymerase cleaves the 5' ends of host RNAs and uses these RNA fragments as primers for viral mRNA synthesis. We performed deep sequencing of the 5' host-derived ends of the eight viral mRNAs of influenza A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (H1N1) virus in infected A549 cells, and compared the population to those of A/Hong Kong/1/1968 (H3N2) and A/WSN/1933 (H1N1). In the three strains, the viral RNAs target different populations of host RNAs. Host RNAs are cap-snatched based on their abundance, and we found that RNAs encoding proteins involved in metabolism are overrepresented in the cap-snatched populations. Because this overrepresentation could be a reflection of the host response early after infection, and thus of the increased availability of these transcripts, our results suggest that host RNAs are cap-snatched mainly based on their abundance without preferential targeting. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Dorota Sikora, Lynda Rocheleau, Earl G Brown, Martin Pelchat. Influenza A virus cap-snatches host RNAs based on their abundance early after infection. Virology. 2017 Sep;509:167-177