1. Virus-encoded histone doublets are essential and form nucleosome-like structures
- Author
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Chelsea Marie Toner, Karolin Luger, Yang Liu, Keda Zhou, Hugo Bisio, Chantal Abergel, Sandra Jeudy, Nadège Philippe, Samuel Bowerman, Garrett B. Edwards, Alison E. White, Nanyang Technological University [Singapour], Information génomique et structurale (IGS), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Adaptation et pathogénie des micro-organismes [Grenoble] (LAPM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF), University of Colorado [Boulder], European Project: 832601,Cells and giant viruses: a win-win co-evolution, Institute for Advanced Biosciences / Institut pour l'Avancée des Biosciences (Grenoble) (IAB), and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire [Grenoble] (CHU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Etablissement français du sang - Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (EFS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)
- Subjects
Subfamily ,Marseilleviridae ,viruses ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,NCLDV giant virus viral nucleosome doublet histone ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Virus ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Viral factory ,Nucleosome ,Giant Virus ,KO fitness impact ,Gene ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,biology ,Melbournevirus genetics ,Ultracentrifugation cryo-EM viral factory histone tail acidic patch non-eukaryotic nucleosome nucleosome-like-particle ,Analytical ,biology.organism_classification ,3. Good health ,Cell biology ,Histone ,biology.protein ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
International audience; The organization of genomic DNA into defined nucleosomes has long been viewed as a hallmark of eukaryotes. This paradigm has been challenged by the identification of “minimalist” histones in archaea and more recently by the discovery of genes that encode fused remote homologs of the four eukaryotic histones in Marseilleviridae, a subfamily of giant viruses that infect amoebae. We demonstrate that viral doublet histones are essential for viral infectivity, localize to cytoplasmic viral factories after virus infection, and ultimately are found in the mature virions. Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of viral nucleosome-like particles show strong similarities to eukaryotic nucleosomes despite the limited sequence identify. The unique connectors that link the histone chains contribute to the observed instability of viral nucleosomes, and some histone tails assume structural roles. Our results further expand the range of “organisms” that require nucleosomes and suggest a specialized function of histones in the biology of these unusual viruses.
- Published
- 2021