RNA polymerase III and antiviral innate immune response

Nayef Jarrous*, Alexander Rouvinski

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The innate immune system has numerous signal transduction pathways that lead to the production of type I interferons in response to exposure of cells to external stimuli. One of these pathways comprises RNA polymerase (Pol) III that senses common DNA viruses, such as cytomegalovirus, vaccinia, herpes simplex virus-1 and varicella zoster virus. This polymerase detects and transcribes viral genomic regions to generate AU-rich transcripts that bring to the induction of type I interferons. Remarkably, Pol III is also stimulated by foreign non-viral DNAs and expression of one of its subunits is induced by an RNA virus, the Sindbis virus. Moreover, a protein subunit of RNase P, which is known to associate with Pol III in initiation complexes, is induced by viral infection. Accordingly, alliance of the two tRNA enzymes in innate immunity merits a consideration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalTranscription
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • DNA virus
  • Pol III
  • RNA virus
  • RNase P
  • innate immune system

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