Dynamic chromatin accessibility profiling reveals changes in host genome organization in response to baculovirus infection

PLoS Pathog. 2020 Jun 8;16(6):e1008633. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008633. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Abstract

DNA viruses can hijack and manipulate the host chromatin state to facilitate their infection. Multiple lines of evidences reveal that DNA virus infection results in the host chromatin relocation, yet there is little known about the effects of viral infection on the architecture of host chromatin. Here, a combination of epigenomic, transcriptomic and biochemical assays were conducted to investigate the temporal dynamics of chromatin accessibility in response to Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) infection. The high-quality ATAC-seq data indicated that progressive chromatin remodeling took place following BmNPV infection. Viral infection resulted in a more open chromatin architecture, along with the marginalization of host genome and nucleosome disassembly. Moreover, our results revealed that chromatin accessibility in uninfected cells was regulated by euchromatic modifications, whereas the viral-induced highly accessible chromatin regions were originally associated with facultative heterochromatic modification. Overall, our findings illustrate for the first time the organization and accessibility of host chromatin in BmNPV-infected cells, which lay the foundation for future studies on epigenomic regulation mediated by DNA viruses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Baculoviridae / physiology*
  • Bombyx* / genetics
  • Bombyx* / metabolism
  • Bombyx* / virology
  • Cell Line
  • Euchromatin* / genetics
  • Euchromatin* / metabolism
  • Euchromatin* / virology
  • Genome, Insect*
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions*

Substances

  • Euchromatin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31772675 and 31972619) and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LZ20C170001). The founders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.