We have used multiplexed high-throughput sequencing to characterize changes in small RNA populations that occur during viral infection in animal cells. Small RNA-based mechanisms such as RNA interference (RNAi) have been shown in plant and invertebrate systems to play a key role in host responses to viral infection. Although homologs of the key RNAi effector pathways are present in mammalian cells, and can launch an RNAi-mediated degradation of experimentally targeted mRNAs, any role for such responses in mammalian host-virus interactions remains to be characterized. Six different viruses were examined in 41 experimentally susceptible and resistant host systems. We identified virus-derived small RNAs (vsRNAs) from all six viruses, with total abundance varying from “vanishingly rare” (less than 0.1% of cellular small RNA) to highly abundant (comparable to abundant micro-RNAs “miRNAs”). In addition to the appearance of vsRNAs during infection, we saw a number of specific changes in host miRNA profiles. For several infection models investigated in more detail, the RNAi and Interferon pathways modulated the abundance of vsRNAs. We also found evidence for populations of vsRNAs that exist as duplexed siRNAs with zero to three nucleotide 3′ overhangs. Using populations of cells carrying a Hepatitis C replicon, we observed strand-selective loading of siRNAs onto Argonaute complexes. These experiments define vsRNAs as one possible component of the interplay between animal viruses and their hosts. Short RNAs derived from invading viruses with RNA genomes are important components of antiviral immunity in plants, worms and flies. The regulated generation of these short RNAs, and their engagement by the immune apparatus, is essential for inhibiting viral growth in these organisms. Mammals have the necessary protein components to generate these viral-derived short RNAs (“vsRNAs”), raising the question of whether vsRNAs in mammals are a general feature of infections with RNA viruses. Our work with Hepatitis C, Polio, Dengue, Vesicular Stomatitis, and West Nile viruses in a broad host repertoire demonstrates the generality of RNA virus-derived vsRNA production, and the ability of the cellular short RNA apparatus to engage these vsRNAs in mammalian cells. Detailed analyses of vsRNA and host-derived short RNA populations demonstrate both common and virus-specific features of the interplay between viral infection and short RNA populations. The vsRNA populations described in this work represent a novel dimension in both viral pathogenesis and host response.

The proto-oncoprotein Bcl-3 is a member of the IκB family and is present predominantly in the nucleus. To gain insight into specific nuclear functions of Bcl-3 we have isolated proteins that interact with its ankyrin repeat domain. Using the yeast two-hybrid-system we identified four novel binding partners of Bcl-3 in addition to NF-κB p50 and p52, previously known to associate with Bcl-3. The novel Bcl-3 interactors Jab1, Pirin, Tip60 and Bard1 are nuclear proteins which also bind to other transcription factors including c-Jun, nuclear factor I (NFI), HIV-1 Tat or the tumor suppressor and Polll holoenzyme component Brca1, respectively. Bcl-3, p50, and either Bard1, Tip60 or Pirin are sequestered into quarternary complexes on NF-κB DNA binding sites, whereas Jab1 enhances p50-Bcl-3-DNA complex formation. Furthermore, the histone acetylase Tip60 enhances Bcl-3-p50 activated transcription through an NF-κB binding site, indicating that quarternary complexes containing Bcl-3 interactors modulate NF-κB driven gene expression. These data implicate Bcl-3 as an adaptor between NF-κB p50/p52 and other transcription regulators and suggest that its gene activation function may at least in part be due to recruitment of the Tip60 histone actetylase.