CHIKV infection reprograms codon optimality to favor viral RNA translation by altering the tRNA epitranscriptome

Abstract

Viruses completely depend on the host translational machinery, but their genomes are often enriched in rare codons and therefore should be translated with poor efficiency. Here, Jungfleisch et al. apply Ribo-Seq and RNASeq to provide a global view on the translational changes occurring during Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. CHIKV infection induces a codon-specific reprogramming of the host translation machinery to favor the translation of viral RNA genomes over host mRNAs via tRNA modification.