RIPK3 Is Largely Dispensable for RIG-I-Like Receptor- and Type I Interferon-Driven Transcriptional Responses to Influenza A Virus in Murine Fibroblasts

The kinase RIPK3 is a key regulator of cell death responses to a growing number of viral and microbial agents. We have found that influenza A virus (IAV)-mediated cell death is largely reliant on RIPK3 and that RIPK3-deficient mice are notably more susceptible to lethal infection by IAV than their wild-type counterparts. Recent studies demonstrate that RIPK3 also participates in regulating gene transcription programs during host pro-inflammatory and innate-immune responses, indicating that this kinase is not solely an inducer of cell death and that RIPK3-driven transcriptional responses may collaborate with cell death in promoting clearance of IAV. Here, we carried out DNA microarray analyses to determine the contribution of RIPK3 to the IAV-elicited host transcriptional response. We report that RIPK3 does not contribute significantly to the RLR-activated transcriptome or to the induction of type I IFN genes, although, interestingly, IFN-β production at a post-transcriptional step was modestly attenuated in IAV-infected ripk3-/- fibroblasts. Overall, RIPK3 regulated the expression of