Role of the cellular factor CTCF in the regulation of Bovine Leukemia Virus latency and three-dimensional chromatin organization [ChIP-seq]

Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV)-induced tumoral development is a multifactorial phenomenon which remains incompletely understood. Here, we highlight the critical role of the cellular CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) both in the regulation of BLV transcriptional activities and in the deregulation of the three-dimensional (3D) chromatin architecture surrounding the BLV integration site. We demonstrated the in vivo recruitment of CTCF to three conserved CTCF binding motifs along the BLV provirus. Next, we showed the localization of CTCF to transitions in the histone modifications profile along BLV genome as well as its implication in the repression the 5’Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) promoter activity, thereby contributing to viral latency, while favoring the 3’LTR promoter activity. Finally, we demonstrated that BLV integration deregulated host cellular 3D chromatin organization through the formation of viral/host chromatin loops. Altogether, our results highlight CTCF as a new critical effector of BLV transcriptional regulation and BLV-induced physiopathology. Input, CTCF and Rad21 ChIP-seq profiles of 2 BLV-infected ovine cell lines (L267 and YR2) and 1 ovine PBMC