Nature Communications (Oct 2024)

The molecular dissection of TRIM25’s RNA-binding mechanism provides key insights into its antiviral activity

  • Lucía Álvarez,
  • Kevin Haubrich,
  • Louisa Iselin,
  • Laurent Gillioz,
  • Vincenzo Ruscica,
  • Karine Lapouge,
  • Sandra Augsten,
  • Ina Huppertz,
  • Nila Roy Choudhury,
  • Bernd Simon,
  • Pawel Masiewicz,
  • Mathilde Lethier,
  • Stephen Cusack,
  • Katrin Rittinger,
  • Frank Gabel,
  • Alexander Leitner,
  • Gracjan Michlewski,
  • Matthias W. Hentze,
  • Frédéric H. T. Allain,
  • Alfredo Castello,
  • Janosch Hennig

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52918-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

Read online

Abstract TRIM25 is an RNA-binding ubiquitin E3 ligase with central but poorly understood roles in the innate immune response to RNA viruses. The link between TRIM25’s RNA binding and its role in innate immunity has not been established. Thus, we utilized a multitude of biophysical techniques to identify key RNA-binding residues of TRIM25 and developed an RNA-binding deficient mutant (TRIM25-m9). Using iCLIP2 in virus-infected and uninfected cells, we identified TRIM25’s RNA sequence and structure specificity, that it binds specifically to viral RNA, and that the interaction with RNA is critical for its antiviral activity.