Comparative Profiling of Ubiquitin
Proteasome System Interplay with
Influenza A Virus PB2 Polymerase
Protein Recapitulating Virus Evolution in
Humans
Elise Biquand,
a
Juline Poirson,
b
* Marwah Karim,
a
Marion Declercq,
a
Nicolas Malausse,
a
Patricia Cassonnet,
a
Cyril Barbezange,
a
*
Marie-Laure Straub,
b
Louis Jones,
a
Sandie Munier,
a
Nadia Naffakh,
a
Sylvie van der Werf,
a
Yves Jacob,
a
Murielle Masson,
b
Caroline Demeret
a
Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses, CNRS UMR 3569, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Institut
Pasteur, Paris, France
a
; Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie Strasbourg, UMR-7242, CNRS, Université de
Strasbourg, Illkirch, France
b
ABSTRACT The optimized exploitation of cell resources is one cornerstone of a suc-
cessful infection. Differential mapping of host-pathogen protein-protein interactions
(PPIs) on the basis of comparative interactomics of multiple strains is an effective
strategy to highlight correlations between host proteome hijacking and biological or
pathogenic traits. Here, we developed an interactomic pipeline to deliver high-
confidence comparative maps of PPIs between a given pathogen and the human
ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS). This subarray of the human proteome repre-
sents a range of essential cellular functions and promiscuous targets for many vi-
ruses. The screening pipeline was applied to the influenza A virus (IAV) PB2 polymer-
ase proteins of five strains representing different levels of virulence in humans. An
extensive PB2-UPS interplay has been detected that recapitulates the evolution of
IAVs in humans. Functional validation with several IAV strains, including the seasonal
H1N1
pdm09
and H3N2 viruses, confirmed the biological relevance of most identified
UPS factors and revealed strain-independent and strain-specific effects of UPS factor
invalidation on IAV infection. This strategy is applicable to proteins from any other
virus or pathogen, providing a valuable resource with which to explore the UPS-
pathogen interplay and its relationship with pathogenicity.
IMPORTANCE Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are responsible for mild-to-severe seasonal
respiratory illness of public health concern worldwide, and the risk of avian strain
outbreaks in humans is a constant threat. Elucidating the requisites of IAV adapta-
tion to humans is thus of prime importance. In this study, we explored how PB2
replication proteins of IAV strains with different levels of virulence in humans hijack
a major protein modification pathway of the human host cell, the ubiquitin protea-
some system (UPS). We found that the PB2 protein engages in an extended inter-
play with the UPS that evolved along with the virus’s adaptation to humans. This
suggests that UPS hijacking underlies the efficient infection of humans and can be
used as an indicator for evaluation of the potential of avian IAVs to infect humans.
Several UPS factors were found to be necessary for infection with circulating IAV
strains, pointing to potential targets for therapeutic approaches.
KEYWORDS comparative interactomics, influenza viruses, ubiquitination, virus-host
interactions
Received 25 July 2017 Accepted 2 November
2017 Published 22 November 2017
Citation Biquand E, Poirson J, Karim M,
Declercq M, Malausse N, Cassonnet P,
Barbezange C, Straub M-L, Jones L, Munier S,
Naffakh N, van der Werf S, Jacob Y, Masson M,
Demeret C. 2017. Comparative profiling of
ubiquitin proteasome system interplay with
influenza A virus PB2 polymerase protein
recapitulating virus evolution in humans.
mSphere 2:e00330-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/
mSphere.00330-17.
Editor Martin Schwemmle, University Medical
Center Freiburg
Copyright © 2017 Biquand et al. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International license.
Address correspondence to Caroline Demeret,
caroline.demeret@pasteur.fr.
* Present address: Juline Poirson, Donnelly
Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research,
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada; Cyril Barbezange, National Influenza
Center, Scientific Institute of Public Health,
Brussels, Belgium.
E.B. and J.P. contributed equally to this work.
M.M. and C.D. are co-supervising scientists.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Host-Microbe Biology
crossm
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