Stress Flips a Chromatin Switch to Wake Up Latent Virus

Daphne C Avgousti; Matthew D Weitzman

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2015.11.011

Stress Flips a Chromatin Switch to Wake Up Latent Virus

Cell Host Microbe. 2015 Dec 9;18(6):639-41. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2015.11.011.

Authors

Daphne C Avgousti¹, Matthew D Weitzman²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: weitzmanm@email.chop.edu.

Abstract

Stress-induced reactivation of latent herpesviruses requires disabling of repression, but the mechanism for converting silenced chromatin into an active state is unknown. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Cliffe et al. (2015) suggest a methyl/phospho switch on histone H3 overcomes repression to facilitate reactivation of latent herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1).

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Comment

MeSH terms

Chromatin*
Herpes Simplex / virology
Herpesvirus 1, Human / genetics
Histones
Humans
Virus Activation
Virus Latency*

Substances

Chromatin
Histones

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding