Material Supplementary 6.DC1http://www.jimmunol.org/content/suppl/2010/07/16/jimmunol.100013

Many herpesvirus-encoded protein kinases facilitate viral lytic replication. Importantly, the role of viral kinases in herpesvirus latency is less clear. Mouse gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV68)-encoded protein kinase orf36 facilitates lytic replication in part through activation of the host DNA damage response (DDR). Here we show that MHV68 latency was attenuated in the absence of orf36 expression. Unexpectedly, our study uncovered enzymatic activity-independent role of orf36 in the establishment of MHV68 latency following intraperitoneal route of infection. H2AX, an important DDR protein, facilitates MHV68 lytic replication and may be directly phosphorylated by orf36 during lytic infection. In this study, H2AX deficiency, whether systemic or limited to infected cells, attenuated the establishment of MHV68 latency in vivo. Thus, our work reveals viral kinase-dependent regulation of gammaherpesvirus latency and illuminates a novel link between H2AX, a component of a tumor suppressor DDR network, and in vivo latency of a cancer-associated gammaherpesvirus.

Gammaherpesviruses, such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), are ubiquitous cancer-associated pathogens that interact with DNA damage response, a tumor suppressor network. Chronic gammaherpesvirus infection and pathogenesis in a DNA damage response-insufficient host are poorly understood. Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is associated with insufficiency of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM), a critical DNA damage response kinase. A-T patients display a pattern of anti-EBV antibodies suggestive of poorly controlled EBV replication; however, parameters of chronic EBV infection and pathogenesis in the A-T population remain unclear. Here we demonstrate that chronic gammaherpesvirus infection is poorly controlled in an animal model of A-T. Intriguingly, in spite of a global increase in T cell activation and numbers in wild-type (wt) and ATM-deficient mice in response to mouse gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) infection, the generation of an MHV68-specific immune response was altered in the absence of ATM. Our finding that ATM expression is necessary for an optimal adaptive immune response against gammaherpesvirus unveils an important connection between DNA damage response and immune control of chronic gammaherpesvirus infection, a connection that is likely to impact viral pathogenesis in an ATM-insufficient host.