Abstract
Emerging zoonotic viral pathogens threaten global health, and there is an urgent need to discover host and viral determinants influencing infection. We performed a loss-of-function genome-wide CRISPR screen in a human lung cell line using HCoV-OC43, a human betacoronavirus. One candidate gene, VPS29, a component of the retromer complex, was required for infection by HCoV-OC43, SARS-CoV- 2, other endemic- and pandemic-threat coronaviruses, as well as ebolavirus. Notably, we observed a heightened requirement for VPS29 by the recently described Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 compared to the ancestral variant. However, VPS29 deficiency had no effect on certain other viruses that enter cells via endosomes and had an opposing, enhancing effect on influenza A virus infection. Deficiency in VPS29 or other retromer components caused changes in endosome morphology and acidity and attenuated the activity of endosomal proteases. These changes in endosome properties caused incoming coronavirus, but not influenza virus particles, to become entrapped therein. Overall, these data show how host regulation of endosome characteristics can influence cellular susceptibility to viral infection and identify a host pathway that could serve as a pharmaceutical target for intervention in zoonotic viral diseases.
Original language | English |
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Journal | mBio |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022 Poston et al.
Keywords
- coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Ebola
- ebolavirus
- endosomes
- genomewide CRISPR screen
- influenza
- influenza virus
- respiratory viruses
- retromer
- SARS-CoV-2
- trafficking
- viral entry
- virus entry
- VPS29
- zoonosis