Department of Biotechnology
inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine)

SARS-CoV-2 infection induces epigenetic changes in the LTR69 subfamily of endogenous retroviruses.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

September 4, 2023

Journal

Mobile DNA

Volume/Issue

14/1

ISSN

1759-8753

Accumulating evidence suggests that endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) play an important role in the host response to infection and the development of disease. By analyzing ChIP-sequencing data sets, we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces H3K27 acetylation of several loci within the LTR69 subfamily of ERVs. Using functional assays, we identified one SARS-CoV-2-activated LTR69 locus, termed Dup69, which exhibits regulatory activity and is responsive to the transcription factors IRF3 and p65/RELA. LTR69_Dup69 is located about 500 bp upstream of a long non-coding RNA gene (ENSG00000289418) and within the PTPRN2 gene encoding a diabetes-associated autoantigen. Both ENSG00000289418 and PTPRN2 showed a significant increase in expression upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, our study sheds light on the interplay of exogenous with endogenous viruses and helps to understand how ERVs regulate gene expression during infection.

Alternate Journal

Mob DNA

PubMed ID

37667401

PubMed Central ID

PMC10476400

Authors

Ankit Arora
Jan Eric Kolberg
Smitha Srinivasachar Badarinarayan
Natalia Savytska
Daksha Munot
Martin Müller
Veronika Krchlíková
Daniel Sauter
Vikas Bansal