RNA-Seq of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid protein expression in human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293

The RNA genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes for four structural proteins, 16 non-structural proteins and nine putative accessory factors. A high throughput analysis of interactions between human and SARS-CoV-2 proteins identified multiple interactions of the structural Nucleocapsid (N) protein with RNA processing factors. The N-protein, which is responsible for packaging of the viral genomic RNA was found to interact with two RNA helicases, UPF1 and MOV10 that are involved in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD). NMD is a translation-coupled mechanism that targets mRNAs harboring a premature stop codon (PTC) for degradation, thereby serving as a quality control and gene regulatory pathway ensuring transcriptome integrity. Here, we wanted to explore the impact of transiently expressed N protein on the transcriptome of human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293 by RNA-Sequencing. To this end, the SARS-CoV2-N protein was transiently expressed from a pcDNA3.1-HA-N plasmid for 48 hours and the corresponding empty vector was used as a control.