A CRISPR screen defines a signal peptide processing pathway required by flaviviruses

A CRISPR screen defines a signal peptide processing pathway required by flaviviruses Nature 535, 7610 (2016). doi:10.1038/nature18625 Authors: Rong Zhang, Jonathan J. Miner, Matthew J. Gorman, Keiko Rausch, Holly Ramage, James P. White, Adam Zuiani, Ping Zhang, Estefania Fernandez, Qiang Zhang, Kimberly A. Dowd, Theodore C. Pierson, Sara Cherry & Michael S. Diamond Flaviviruses infect hundreds of millions of people annually, and no antiviral therapy is available. We performed a genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9-based screen to identify host genes that, when edited, resulted in reduced flavivirus infection. Here, we validated nine human genes required for flavivirus infectivity, and these were associated with endoplasmic reticulum functions including translocation, protein degradation, and N-linked glycosylation. In particular, a subset of endoplasmic reticulum-associated signal peptidase complex (SPCS) proteins was necessary for proper cleavage of the flavivirus structural proteins (prM and E) and secretion of viral particles. Loss of SPCS1 expression resulted in markedly reduced yield of all Flaviviridae family members tested (West Nile, Dengue, Zika, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and hepatitis C viruses), but had little impact on alphavirus, bunyavirus, or rhabdovirus infection or the surface expression or secretion of diverse host proteins. We found that SPCS1 dependence could be bypassed by replacing the native prM protein l...
Source: Nature - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Letter Source Type: research