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

Ella N Hartenian; Britt A Glaunsinger

Two pieces of evidence indicate that reduction of Pol II at host genes is unlikely due to 246 sequestration of or competition for the transcription machinery by the viral DNA. First, infection 247 with the mRNA decay mutant virus R443I, which replicates its viral genome to WT levels (6), 248 does not induce the widespread reduction in Pol II recruitment to host promoters. Second, 249 transfection of muSOX alone (or other broad acting viral endonucleases) in the absence of viral 250 infection is sufficient to induce transcriptional repression at host promoters. Therefore, we 251 instead favor the hypothesis that one or more cellular proteins released from degrading mRNA 252 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/585984 doi: bioRxiv preprint