Title SARS-CoV-2 restructures host chromatin architecture.
Author Wang, Ruoyu; Lee, Joo-Hyung; Kim, Jieun; Xiong, Feng; Hasani, Lana Al; Shi, Yuqiang; Simpson, Erin N; Zhu, Xiaoyu; Chen, Yi-Ting; Shivshankar, Pooja; Krakowiak, Joanna; Wang, Yanyu; Gilbert, David M; Yuan, Xiaoyi; Eltzschig, Holger K; Li, Wenbo
Journal Nat Microbiol Publication Year/Month 2023-Apr
PMID 36959507 PMCID PMC10116496
Affiliation + expend 1.Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.

Some viruses restructure host chromatin, influencing gene expression, with implications for disease outcome. Whether this occurs for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is largely unknown. Here we characterized the 3D genome and epigenome of human cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection, finding widespread host chromatin restructuring that features widespread compartment A weakening, A-B mixing, reduced intra-TAD contacts and decreased H3K27ac euchromatin modification levels. Such changes were not found following common-cold-virus HCoV-OC43 infection. Intriguingly, the cohesin complex was notably depleted from intra-TAD regions, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 disrupts cohesin loop extrusion. These altered 3D genome/epigenome structures correlated with transcriptional suppression of interferon response genes by the virus, while increased H3K4me3 was found in the promoters of pro-inflammatory genes highly induced during severe COVID-19. These findings show that SARS-CoV-2 acutely rewires host chromatin, facilitating future studies of the long-term epigenomic impacts of its infection.

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    National Institute of Pathogen Biology, CAMS & PUMC, Bejing, China
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