EBNA1 ChIP-seq and MNase-seq in EBV-positive MUTU cell lines. Human gammaherpesvirus 4

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), which is associated with multiple human tumors, persists as a minichromosome in the nucleus of B-lymphocytes and induces malignancies through incompletely understood mechanisms. Here, we present a large-scale functional genomic analysis of EBV. Our experimentally generated nucleosome positioning maps and viral protein binding data were integrated with over 700 publicly available high-throughput sequencing data sets for human lymphoblastoid cell lines mapped to the EBV genome. We found that viral lytic genes are coexpressed with cellular cancer-associated pathways, suggesting that the lytic cycle may play an unexpected role in virus-mediated oncogenesis. Host regulators of viral oncogene expression and chromosome structure were identified and validated, revealing a role for the B-cell-specific protein Pax5 in viral gene regulation and the cohesin complex in regulating higher order chromatin structure. Our findings provide a deeper understanding of latent viral persistence in oncogenesis and establish a valuable viral genomics resource for future exploration. Overall design: Six sequencing experiments were performed. One EBNA1 ChIP-seq was controlled with IgG ChIP-seq. Two MNase-seq biological replicates were each conrolled by input seq using the same cells subjected to MNase digestion.