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Record W4412848824 · doi:10.1101/2025.08.01.668067

Neurotropic and non-neurotropic equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV1) mobilize most histones within viral replication compartments

2025· preprint· en· W4412848824 on OpenAlexaff
Kristen L. Conn

Bibliographic record

VenuebioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025
Typepreprint
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicHerpesvirus Infections and Treatments
Canadian institutionsUniversity of Saskatchewan
Fundersnot available
KeywordsNeurotropic virusHistoneReplication (statistics)VirologyViral replicationCell biologyBiologyVirusGeneticsDNA

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract Equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV1) is a DNA virus that causes severe disease outcomes in equids. Some EHV1 strains are neurotropic and cause disease in the central nervous system, whereas others are non-neurotropic and can cause negative reproductive outcomes. The molecular mechanisms that govern pathotype of individual EHV1 strains are not understood. However, EHV1 replication in the presence of epigenetic inhibitors suggests that neurotropic and non-neurotropic EHV1 are differentially susceptible to epigenetic silencing. Aside from this evidence, little is known about EHV1 chromatin or its regulation. Here, we used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching to characterize EHV1 lytic chromatin dynamics. Infection with neurotropic or non-neurotropic EHV1 mobilized all histones. Canonical (H2A, H2B, H3.1, H4) or variant (H2A.B, H2A.Z, H2A.X, macroH2A, H3.3) core and linker H1.2 histones were equally mobilized by either strain. Thus, there were no vast differences in histone mobility during neurotropic or non-neurotropic EHV1 infection. All histones except for H2A.B were more mobile within EHV1 replication compartments (RCs) than the surrounding infected-cell chromatin. The differential mobility of histones within domains enriched for viral or cellular chromatin is consistent with distinct mechanisms to assemble and regulate the chromatin associated with viral or host DNA. Histones were further mobilized within RCs in cells in which infection had further progressed. Such mobilization indicates that increased levels of EHV1 transcription, DNA replication, or protein expression directly or indirectly mobilize histones. The high histone mobility within EHV1 RCs is consistent with assembly of EHV1 genomes in very dynamic and unstable nucleosomes. These data support a model in which EHV1 limits genome silencing by preventing stable chromatin assembly, or destabilizing the chromatin assembled, with viral genomes during lytic infection. We propose that manipulation of histone dynamics represents a novel mechanism of epigenetic regulation adopted by alphaherpesviruses to maintain genome accessibility and prevent gene silencing. Author summary DNA viruses are subjected to epigenetic regulation that silences or promotes gene expression. Multiple epigenetic mechanisms contribute to stabilize chromatin to silence gene expression or destabilize it to promote gene expression. Knowledge of the mechanisms whereby viruses prevent or overcome genome silencing and promote expression of their genes is important to understand how viruses, including alphaherpesviruses, take over the host cell to establish productive infection. Here we show that EHV1 broadly mobilizes histones within nuclear domains enriched in viral chromatin. Histone mobilization destabilizes chromatin and is consistent with the assembly of EHV1 genomes in dynamic, unstable nucleosomes. The manipulation of histone mobility is a phenomenon first described for the alphaherpesvirus herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1). The conserved approach to dysregulate chromatin dynamics and mobilize histones represents a unique means whereby herpesviruses destabilize chromatin. Understanding the mechanisms that mobilize histones during infection will increase our general understanding of epigenetic regulation, which is important in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and also of developmental or genetic ones. Moreover, knowledge of the processes whereby herpesviruses destabilize chromatin will support the development of novel therapeutics to maintain viral genomes in stable, silenced chromatin to prevent productive infection and development of associated diseases.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.000
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Bench or experimental · Consensus signal: Bench or experimental
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.001
Threshold uncertainty score0.004

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.019
GPT teacher head0.270
Teacher spread0.251 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designBench or experimental
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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