SARS-CoV-2 Orf6 hijacks Nup98 to block STAT nuclear import and antagonize interferon signaling.
Lisa Miorin, Thomas Kehrer, Maria Teresa Sanchez-Aparicio, Ke Zhang, Phillip Cohen, Roosheel S Patel, Anastasija Cupic, Tadashi Makio, Menghan Mei, Elena Moreno, Oded Danziger, Kris M White, Raveen Rathnasinghe, Melissa Uccellini, Shengyan Gao, Teresa Aydillo, Ignacio Mena, Xin Yin, Laura Martin-Sancho, Nevan J Krogan, Sumit K Chanda, Michael Schotsaert, Richard W Wozniak, Yi Ren, Brad R Rosenberg, Beatriz M A Fontoura, Adolfo García-Sastre
Author Information
Lisa Miorin: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029; lisa.miorin@mssm.edu adolfo.garcia-sastre@mssm.edu. ORCID
Thomas Kehrer: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Maria Teresa Sanchez-Aparicio: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Ke Zhang: Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390. ORCID
Phillip Cohen: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Roosheel S Patel: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Anastasija Cupic: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Tadashi Makio: Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H7, Canada.
Menghan Mei: Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232. ORCID
Elena Moreno: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Oded Danziger: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Kris M White: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Raveen Rathnasinghe: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Melissa Uccellini: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Shengyan Gao: Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390. ORCID
Teresa Aydillo: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Ignacio Mena: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Xin Yin: Immunity and Pathogenesis Program, Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037. ORCID
Laura Martin-Sancho: Immunity and Pathogenesis Program, Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037.
Nevan J Krogan: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Sumit K Chanda: Immunity and Pathogenesis Program, Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037.
Michael Schotsaert: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029.
Richard W Wozniak: Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H7, Canada. ORCID
Yi Ren: Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232. ORCID
Brad R Rosenberg: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. ORCID
Beatriz M A Fontoura: Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390. ORCID
Adolfo García-Sastre: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029; lisa.miorin@mssm.edu adolfo.garcia-sastre@mssm.edu. ORCID
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that is a serious global health problem. Evasion of IFN-mediated antiviral signaling is a common defense strategy that pathogenic viruses use to replicate and propagate in their host. In this study, we show that SARS-CoV-2 is able to efficiently block STAT1 and STAT2 nuclear translocation in order to impair transcriptional induction of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). Our results demonstrate that the viral accessory protein Orf6 exerts this anti-IFN activity. We found that SARS-CoV-2 Orf6 localizes at the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and directly interacts with Nup98-Rae1 via its C-terminal domain to impair docking of cargo-receptor (karyopherin/importin) complex and disrupt nuclear import. In addition, we show that a methionine-to-arginine substitution at residue 58 impairs Orf6 binding to the Nup98-Rae1 complex and abolishes its IFN antagonistic function. All together our data unravel a mechanism of viral antagonism in which a virus hijacks the Nup98-Rae1 complex to overcome the antiviral action of IFN.