Analysis of the transcription initiation mechanism of tomato spotted wilt virus

Genome replication and transcription of Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV, genus Tospovirus ) follows in most aspects the general rules for negative strand RNA viruses with segmented genomes. One common feature is the occurrence of "cap snatching" during transcription initiation. During this process, capped leader sequences of suitable host mRNAs are recruited and cleaved to serve as primers for transcription.At the start of the research project described in this thesis, the occurrence of cap snatching during transcription initiation of TSWV was established, but the requirements for host leaders to function as cap donors were unknown. In order to identify these requirements under conditions that resembled a natural infection most closely, Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) RNAs were presented and tested as specific cap donors during a co-infection with TSWV of Nicotiana benthamiana (Chapter 2). Thus it was found that all four AMV RNAs can be used by TSWV as cap donors. Of these AMV RNAs, only RNA 3 was cleaved exclusively at one position, i.e. at nucleotide A17, indicating that a cleavage preference existed. However, as the 5' ultimate residue of the TSWV genomic sequence in these mRNAs could be either derived from the AMV leader or represent the first templated nucleotide, the actual cleavage site, i.e. 5' or 3' of the A17 residue, could not be established. In case the first viral residue originated from the capped leader, it would implicate a requirement for a single base pairing between the cap donor RNA and the viral template during transcription initiation.To confirm whether such single complementarity was required, a series of AMV RNA3 and RNA4 mutants, modified in their leader sequences, was offered as cDNA constructs to transgenic N. tabacum p12 plants expressing the AMV replicase proteins and tested as cap donors during a co-infection with TSWV. RT-PCR amplification and sequence analyses of chimaeric AMV-TSWV mRNAs strongly supported a single base pairing requirement between cap donor and viral template and a cleavage preference for nucleotide position 16 from the cap structure. Base pairing not only occurred with the 3' ultimate residue of the viral template, but in some cases also with the penultimate or even antepenultimate residues, indicating that a G-C base pairing instead of an A-U base pairing could also occur. These findings were further tested and substantiated by investigating TSWV mRNAs with leaders derived from known host mRNAs (Chapter 3).While the co-inoculation approaches using (mutant) AMV RNAs allowed the analysis of cap donor requirements for transcription initiation on TSWV genomic RNA, it was not suitable for the identification and characterisation of the viral proteins involved, such as the nucleoprotein (N) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), or of important cis -acting sequences within the viral RNA template. Therefore, a Vaccinia virus -T7 expression system was developed, which enabled reconstitution of active viral RNPs entirely from cloned cDNAs (Chapter 4). Using this system, the 331.5 kDa RdRp was successfully expressed in OST7-1 murine fibroblasts along with the N protein and a reporter construct resembling the viral S RNA. By replacing the S RNA-encoded NSs gene for the sensitive luciferase reporter gene, functional RdRp activity was demonstrated with the expression of luciferase in vivo .In Chapter 5, the results obtained are discussed in relation to available data for other segmented negative strand RNA viruses. Finally, a model for TSWV transcription initiation is proposed.</p

Digital Health Solutions to Reduce the Burden of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Proposed by the CARRIER Consortium

Digital health is a promising tool to support people with an elevated risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and patients with an established disease to improve cardiovascular outcomes. Many digital health initiatives have been developed and employed. However, barriers to their large-scale implementation have remained. This paper focuses on these barriers and presents solutions as proposed by the Dutch CARRIER (ie, Coronary ARtery disease: Risk estimations and Interventions for prevention and EaRly detection) consortium. We will focus in 4 sections on the following: (1) the development process of an eHealth solution that will include design thinking and cocreation with relevant stakeholders; (2) the modeling approach for two clinical prediction models (CPMs) to identify people at risk of developing ASCVD and to guide interventions; (3) description of a federated data infrastructure to train the CPMs and to provide the eHealth solution with relevant data; and (4) discussion of an ethical and legal framework for responsible data handling in health care. The Dutch CARRIER consortium consists of a collaboration between experts in the fields of eHealth development, ASCVD, public health, big data, as well as ethics and law. The consortium focuses on reducing the burden of ASCVD. We believe the future of health care is data driven and supported by digital health. Therefore, we hope that our research will not only facilitate CARRIER consortium but may also facilitate other future health care initiatives

Comparative structural and functional analysis of Bunyavirus and Arenavirus cap-snatching Endonucleases

Segmented negative strand RNA viruses of the arena-, bunya- and orthomyxovirus families uniquely carry out viral mRNA transcription by the cap-snatching mechanism. This involves cleavage of host mRNAs close to their capped 5′ end by an endonuclease (EN) domain located in the N-terminal region of the viral polymerase. We present the structure of the cap-snatching EN of Hantaan virus, a bunyavirus belonging to hantavirus genus. Hantaan EN has an active site configuration, including a metal co-ordinating histidine, and nuclease activity similar to the previously reported La Crosse virus and Influenza virus ENs (orthobunyavirus and orthomyxovirus respectively), but is more active in cleaving a double stranded RNA substrate. In contrast, Lassa arenavirus EN has only acidic metal co-ordinating residues. We present three high resolution structures of Lassa virus EN with different bound ion configurations and show in comparative biophysical and biochemical experiments with Hantaan, La Crosse and influenza ENs that the isolated Lassa EN is essentially inactive. The results are discussed in the light of EN activation mechanisms revealed by recent structures of full-length influenza virus polymerase

An external quality assessment feasibility study; cross laboratory comparison of haemagglutination inhibition assay and microneutralization assay performance for seasonal influenza serology testing: A FLUCOP study

Introduction: External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes are designed to provide a snapshot of laboratory proficiency, identifying issues and providing feedback to improve laboratory performance and inter-laboratory agreement in testing. Currently there are no international EQA schemes for seasonal influenza serology testing. Here we present a feasibility study for conducting an EQA scheme for influenza serology methods. Methods: We invited participant laboratories from industry, contract research organizations (CROs), academia and public health institutions who regularly conduct hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) and microneutralization (MN) assays and have an interest in serology standardization. In total 16 laboratories returned data including 19 data sets for HAI assays and 9 data sets for MN assays. Results: Within run analysis demonstrated good laboratory performance for HAI, with intrinsically higher levels of intra-assay variation for MN assays. Between run analysis showed laboratory and strain specific issues, particularly with B strains for HAI, whilst MN testing was consistently good across labs and strains. Inter-laboratory variability was higher for MN assays than HAI, however both assays showed a significant reduction in inter-laboratory variation when a human sera pool is used as a standard for normalization. Discussion: This study has received positive feedback from participants, highlighting the benefit such an EQA scheme would have on improving laboratory performance, reducing inter laboratory variation and raising awareness of both harmonized protocol use and the benefit of biological standards for seasonal influenza serology testing.publishedVersio

Bunyaviridae RNA Polymerases (L-Protein) Have an N-Terminal, Influenza-Like Endonuclease Domain, Essential for Viral Cap-Dependent Transcription

Bunyaviruses are a large family of segmented RNA viruses which, like influenza virus, use a cap-snatching mechanism for transcription whereby short capped primers derived by endonucleolytic cleavage of host mRNAs are used by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L-protein) to transcribe viral mRNAs. It was recently shown that the cap-snatching endonuclease of influenza virus resides in a discrete N-terminal domain of the PA polymerase subunit. Here we structurally and functionally characterize a similar endonuclease in La Crosse orthobunyavirus (LACV) L-protein. We expressed N-terminal fragments of the LACV L-protein and found that residues 1-180 have metal binding and divalent cation dependent nuclease activity analogous to that of influenza virus endonuclease. The 2.2 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of the domain confirms that LACV and influenza endonucleases have similar overall folds and identical two metal binding active sites. The in vitro activity of the LACV endonuclease could be abolished by point mutations in the active site or by binding 2,4-dioxo-4-phenylbutanoic acid (DPBA), a known influenza virus endonuclease inhibitor. A crystal structure with bound DPBA shows the inhibitor chelating two active site manganese ions. The essential role of this endonuclease in cap-dependent transcription was demonstrated by the loss of transcriptional activity in a RNP reconstitution system in cells upon making the same point mutations in the context of the full-length LACV L-protein. Using structure based sequence alignments we show that a similar endonuclease almost certainly exists at the N-terminus of L-proteins or PA polymerase subunits of essentially all known negative strand and cap-snatching segmented RNA viruses including arenaviruses (2 segments), bunyaviruses (3 segments), tenuiviruses (4–6 segments), and orthomyxoviruses (6–8 segments). This correspondence, together with the well-known mapping of the conserved polymerase motifs to the central regions of the L-protein and influenza PB1 subunit, suggests that L-proteins might be architecturally, and functionally equivalent to a concatemer of the three orthomyxovirus polymerase subunits in the order PA-PB1-PB2. Furthermore, our structure of a known influenza endonuclease inhibitor bound to LACV endonuclease suggests that compounds targeting a potentially broad spectrum of segmented RNA viruses, several of which are serious or emerging human, animal and plant pathogens, could be developed using structure-based optimisation

Lipid exchanges drove the evolution of mutualism during plant terrestrialization

Symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) improves plant nutrition in most land plants, and its contribution to the colonization of land by plants has been hypothesized. Here, we identify a conserved transcriptomic response to AMF among land plants, including the activation of lipid metabolism. Using gain of function, we show the transfer of lipids from the liverwort Marchantia paleacea to AMF and its direct regulation by the transcription factor WRINKLED (WRI). Arbuscules, the nutrient-exchange structures, were not formed in loss-of-function wri mutants in M. paleacea, leading to aborted mutualism. Our results show the orthology of the symbiotic transfer of lipids across land plants and demonstrate that mutualism with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was present in the most recent ancestor of land plants 450 million years ago