Posttranscriptional regulatory interactions during Herpes Simplex Virus infection
Cell Biology
Final Report Abstract
In our grant proposal, we set out to apply RNA-centered high-throughput methods to study transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory events in HSV-1 infections. Early in the project, we discovered a highly surprising and novel feature, namely the induction of antisense transcription from the host cell genome by the infection. We therefore focused on this observation and could eventually publish it in a high-profile general interest journal. The main aims of the grant proposal are still pursued, partially in collaboration with other labs in Germany. Importantly, the funding of this project by the DFG was at the beginning of a range of collaborations between members of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine and various virology institutes. Particularly, the labs of Friedrich Grässer and Markus Landthaler started in 2017 to employ the breakthrough technology of single-cell RNA-sequencing to study heterogeneities in viral infection. In this work, we also showed how unbiased high-throughput investigations and data analysis can eventually lead to candidates for clinical interventions.
Publications
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Widespread activation of antisense transcription of the host genome during Herpes simplex virus 1 infection. Genome Biology (2017) 18:209
Emanuel Wyler, Jennifer Menegatti, Vedran Franke, Christine Kocks, Anastasiya Boltengagen, Thomas Hennig, Kathrin Theil, Andrzej Rutkowski, Carmelo Ferrai, Laura Baer, Lisa Kermas, Caroline Friedel, Nikolaus Rajewsky, Altuna Akalin, Lars Dölken, Friedrich Grässer and Markus Landthaler
