Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus encodes a mimic of cellular miR-23

J Virol. 2013 Nov;87(21):11821-30. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01692-13. Epub 2013 Aug 28.

Abstract

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) expresses ∼20 viral microRNAs (miRNAs) in latently infected cells. We have previously shown that two of these miRNAs function as mimics of the cellular miRNAs miR-155 and miR-142-3p. Two additional KSHV miRNAs, miR-K3+1 and miR-K3, share perfect and offset 5' homology with cellular miR-23, respectively. Here, we report a single nucleotide polymorphism that causes miR-K3+1 expression in a subset of KSHV-infected primary effusion lymphoma cell lines as a consequence of altered processing of the primary transcript by the Microprocessor complex. We confirm that miR-K3+1 regulates miR-23 targets, which is expected because these miRNAs share the entire seed region (nucleotides 2 to 8). Surprisingly, we found that miR-K3 also regulates miR-23 targets, despite offset seed sequences. In addition, the offset homology of miR-K3 to miR-23 likely allows this viral miRNA to expand its target repertoire beyond the targets of miR-23. Because miR-23 is highly expressed in endothelial cells but expressed at only low levels in B cells, we hypothesize that miR-K3 may function to introduce miR-23-like activities into KSHV-infected B cells. Together, our data demonstrate that KSHV has evolved at least three distinct viral miRNAs to tap into evolutionarily conserved cellular miRNA-regulatory networks. Furthermore, our data allow fundamental insights into the generation and functional impact of miRNA 5' end variation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Herpesvirus 8, Human / genetics*
  • Herpesvirus 8, Human / physiology
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions*
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
  • RNA, Viral / genetics*
  • RNA, Viral / metabolism*
  • Virus Latency*

Substances

  • MIRN23a microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Viral