Herpesvirus infection reduces Pol II occupancy of host promoters but spares viral promoters

Ella N Hartenian; Britt A Glaunsinger

Regulating messenger RNA (mRNA) abundance is of central importance during both 43 cellular homeostasis and disease. While it is intuitive that transcriptional changes in the nucleus 44 impact RNA levels in the cytoplasm, evidence in both yeast and mammalian cells now indicates 45 that the converse is also true: altered cytoplasmic mRNA decay rates can broadly impact 46 transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II). In yeast, stabilizing the cytoplasmic mRNA pool by 47 (ChIP-seq) in mock versus MHV68 infected MC57G mouse fibroblasts at 24 hours post 96 infection (hpi). As a control, we also infected cells with a version of MHV68 containing the 97 point mutation R443I in the viral muSOX endonuclease gene, which reduces its mRNA cleavage 98 activity. R443I retains a similar lytic cycle and infectious capability to wildtype (WT) MHV68 in 99 vivo and in vitro its infectious capability is similar to MHV68 in mouse fibroblasts (6,23). 100