Revealing the elusive molecular biology of the vault RNA

Nachbauer, Birgit (11 June 2013). Revealing the elusive molecular biology of the vault RNA (Unpublished). In: 18th RNA Society Meeting. Davos, Schweiz. 11.-16.06.2013.

Recently several novel and previously reported non-protein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been identified to be upregulated upon Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in human B-lymphocytes. A group of these significantly upregulated ncRNAs are called vault RNAs (vtRNAs). ,b Only about 5% of the total cellular vtRNAs are connected to the vault particle, the largest known ribonucleoprotein particle (RNP) in eukaryotic cells. However the function of this ncRNA family and moreover of the vault particle remains still rather unclear. Our previous findings suggest a link between EBV infection and vtRNA expression. Consequently we are interested which part of the viral genome is responsible for the upregulation and moreover which function the vtRNAs might possess during virus propagation.

To address this question we have separately overexpressed specific EBV-encoded, latently expressed proteins in BL2-cells to determine the influence on the vault RNA levels. Thereby we identified one EBV-encoded protein, called Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1), which significantly contributes to the vtRNA upregulation. We used LMP1 mutants to characterize the region of the protein and the responsible pathway for triggering the elevated vtRNA expression. Our results suggest that the NFkB- pathway might be involved in this process. To investigate a possible functional connection between the vtRNA and EBV infection, we have overexpressed vtRNA1-1 in BL41, a cell line usually not expressing this vault RNA. We show that overexpression of vtRNA1-1 leads to a better viral establishment and markedly protects cells from undergoing apoptosis. Knock-down of the major vault protein, the main component of the vault particle, had no effect on EBV infection and apoptosis resistance. Thus these results support the view that the observed phenotype is caused by the vtRNA rather than the vault particle.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences (DCBP)

UniBE Contributor:

Nachbauer, Birgit

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 540 Chemistry

Language:

English

Submitter:

Christina Schüpbach

Date Deposited:

04 Aug 2014 17:12

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:36

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/55157

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