Pathogen-driven CRISPR Screens Identify TREX1 As a Regulator of DNA Self-sensing During Influenza Virus Infection

Overview

Journal Cell Host Microbe

Publisher Cell Press

Specialties Infectious Diseases
Microbiology

Date 2023 Aug 31

PMID 37652009

Authors

Cason R King

Yiping Liu

Katherine A Amato

Grace A Schaack

Clayton Mickelson

Autumn E Sanders

Tony Hu

Srishti Gupta

Ryan A Langlois

Judith A Smith

Andrew Mehle

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Host:pathogen interactions dictate the outcome of infection, yet the limitations of current approaches leave large regions of this interface unexplored. Here, we develop a novel fitness-based screen that queries factors important during the middle to late stages of infection. This is achieved by engineering influenza virus to direct the screen by programming dCas9 to modulate host gene expression. Our genome-wide screen for pro-viral factors identifies the cytoplasmic DNA exonuclease TREX1. TREX1 degrades cytoplasmic DNA to prevent inappropriate innate immune activation by self-DNA. We reveal that this same process aids influenza virus replication. Infection triggers release of mitochondrial DNA into the cytoplasm, activating antiviral signaling via cGAS and STING. TREX1 metabolizes the DNA, preventing its sensing. Collectively, these data show that self-DNA is deployed to amplify innate immunity, a process tempered by TREX1. Moreover, they demonstrate the power and generality of pathogen-driven fitness-based screens to pinpoint key host regulators of infection.

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