Retroviral integration site selection: a running Gag?

Authors:

Paul Lesbats1,2,3 and Vincent Parissi1,2,3

doi: 10.15698/mic2018.12.663
Volume 5, pp. 569 to 571, published 19/11/2018.

PDF Download PubMed Link
Affiliations:

1 Fundamental Microbiology and Pathogenicity Laboratory, UMR 5234 CNRS, SFR TransBioMed. Bordeaux, France.

2 International Associated Laboratory (LIA) of Microbiology and Immunology, CNRS / Heinrich Pette Institute-Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, Bordeaux, France.

3 Viral DNA Integration and Chromatin Dynamics Network (DyNAVir), Bordeaux, France.

Keywords: 

retrovirus, integration, nucleosome, chromatin-binding, Gag

Corresponding Author(s):

Paul Lesbats, Fundamental Microbiology and Pathogenicity Laboratory, UMR 5234 CNRS, SFR TransBioMed. Bordeaux, France; Paul.lesbats@u-bordeaux.fr

Conflict of interest statement:

No conflicts.

Please cite this article as:

Paul Lesbats and Vincent Parissi (2018). Retroviral integration site selection: a running Gag? Microbial Cell 5(12): 569-571. doi: 10.15698/mic2018.12.663

© 2018 Lesbats and Parissi. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.

Abstract:

The ability of retroviruses to integrate their genomes into host chromatin is a key step for the completion of their replication cycle. Selection of a suitable chromosomal integration site has been described as a hierarchical mechanism involving both cellular and viral proteins but the exact molecular determinants are still unclear. We recently showed that the spumaretrovirus prototype foamy virus (PFV) Gag protein is acting as a chromatin tether by interacting with the nucleosome acidic patch (Lesbats et al. PNAS 114(21)). Disruption of the nucleosome binding leads to a dramatic delocalization of both the viral particles and the integration sites accompanied with a reduction of integrated genes expression. These data show for the first time a direct interaction between retroviral structural proteins with the host chromosomes, and highlight their importance in the integration sites selection.