Respiratory Syncytial virus NS1 protein targets the transactivator binding domain of MED25

Respiratory syncytial virus has evolved a unique strategy to evade host immune response by coding for two non-structural proteins NS1 and NS2. Recently it was shown that in infected cells, nuclear NS1 could be involved in transcription regulation of host genes linked to innate immune response, via an interaction with chromatin and the Mediator complex. Here we identified the MED25 Mediator subunit as an NS1 interactor in a yeast two-hybrid screen. We demonstrate that NS1 directly interacts with MED25 in vitro and in cellula, and that this interaction involves the C-terminal 3 helix of NS1 and the MED25 ACID domain. More specifically we showed by NMR that the NS1 3 sequence primarily binds to the MED25 ACID H2 face, which is a transactivation domain (TAD) binding site for transcription regulators such as ATF6, a master regulator of ER stress response activated upon viral infection. Moreover, we found out that the NS1 3 helix could compete with ATF6 TAD binding to MED25. This finding points to a mechanism of NS1 interfering with innate immune response by impairing recruitment by cellular TADs of the Mediator via MED25 and hence transcription of specific genes by RNA polymerase II. ImportanceHuman RSV is the leading cause of infantile bronchiolitis in the world and one of the major causes of childhood deaths in resource-poor settings. It is a major unmet target for vaccines and anti-viral drugs. RSV non-structural protein NS1 is known to antagonize the cellular immune response and was recently shown to be involved in transcription regulation of infected cells. However, the exact mechanism of this regulation is not well defined. Here we show that nuclear NS1 interacts directly with the Mediator subunit MED25 and is able to compete with a cellular transcription activator, which is activated during viral infection. We hypothesize that this interaction may underlie regulation of the expression of genes involved in the innate immune response.