RNA-Protein Interaction Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 5′ and 3′ Untranslated Regions Reveals a Role of Lysosome-Associated Membrane Protein-2a during Viral Infection
Rohit Verma, Sandhini Saha, Shiv Kumar, Shailendra Mani, Tushar Kanti Maiti, Milan Surjit
Abstract
Replication of a positive-strand RNA virus involves an RNA-protein complex consisting of viral genomic RNA, host RNA(s), virus-encoded proteins, and host proteins. Dissecting out individual components of the replication complex will help decode the mechanism of viral replication. 5' and 3' UTRs in positive-strand RNA viruses play essential regulatory roles in virus replication. Here, we identified the host proteins that associate with the UTRs of SARS-CoV-2, combined those data with the previously known protein-protein interaction data (expected to be involved in virus replication), and generated the RNA-protein-protein interaction (RPPI) network. Analysis of the RPPI network revealed the enrichment of factors involved in translation initiation and RNA metabolism, which are important for virus replication. Analysis of one of the interaction partners of the 5'-UTR (Lamp2a) demonstrated its role in reducing the viral RNA level in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. Collectively, our study provides a resource of SARS-CoV-2 UTR-binding proteins and identifies an important role for host Lamp2a protein during viral infection.