Perturbation of cell cycle regulation is a characteristic feature of infection by many DNA and RNA viruses, including Coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). IBV infection was shown to induce cell cycle arrest at both S and G 2 /M phases for the enhancement of viral replication and progeny production. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well explored. In this study we show that activation of cellular DNA damage response is one of the mechanisms exploited by Coronavirus to induce cell cycle arrest. An ATR-dependent cellular DNA damage response was shown to be activated by IBV infection. Suppression of the ATR kinase activity by chemical inhibitors and siRNA-mediated knockdown of ATR reduced the IBV-induced ATR signaling and inhibited the replication of IBV. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid screens and subsequent biochemical and functional studies demonstrated that interaction between Coronavirus nsp13 and DNA polymerase ⊠induced DNA replication stress in IBV-infected cells. These findings indicate that the ATR signaling activated by IBV replication contributes to the IBV-induced S-phase arrest and is required for efficient IBV replication and progeny production.DNA damage response is a signal transduction pathway that coordinates cell cycle transition, DNA replication, and repair in response to DNA damage or replication stress (1, 2). It is essential for maintenance of genome integrity and cell survival. DNA damage response is primarily mediated by two related protein kinases, the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) 2 and ATM/ Rad3-related (ATR). ATM is activated as a result of doublestranded breaks (DSBs) and is recruited to DSBs by Mre11-Rad50-NBS1 complex (3, 4). ATR, on the other hand, is activated by a wide range of DNA damage, including stalled DNA replication forks and the subsequent single-stranded lesion (ssDNA), base adducts, ultraviolet (UV)-induced nucleotide damage, and double-stranded breaks during S phase (1, 5). ATR is recruited to replication factor A (RPA)-coated ssDNA by ATR-interacting protein (ATRIP) (6, 7). When ATM or ATR is recruited to sites of damage, they phosphorylate and activate different substrates, including checkpoint kinase-2 (CHK2) and CHK1, respectively (1,8,9). A large number of overlapping substrates of ATM and ATR that might be involved in DNA damage response has been presented (e.g. H2AX, RPA32, p53, BRCA1) (10, 11). Those signaling modules finally lead to cell cycle arrest to allow for DNA repair or apoptosis in cases of severe DNA damage. In contrast to ATM, ATR prevents replication fork collapse at stalled replication forks and is essential for cell viability (7,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18).Many DNA viruses and retroviruses, including Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex virus 1, human Papillomavirus 16, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), adenovirus, simian virus 40 (SV40), and Polyomavirus, are known to eliminate, circumvent, or exploit various aspects of cellular DNA damage response machinery to maximize their own replication. In RNA virus families, however,...