miR-204 suppresses porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus(PRRSV)replication via inhibiting LC3B-mediated autophagy

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome(PRRS)caused by PRRS virus(PRRSV)has been regarded as a persistent challenge for the swine farms worldwide.microRNAs(miRNAs)play key roles in regulating almost every important biological process,including virus-host interaction.In this study,we found that miR-204 was highly expressed in cells that were not permissive to PRRSV infection compared with cells susceptible to PRRSV infection.Subsequently,we demonstrated that overexpression of miR-204 significantly inhibited PRRSV replication in porcine alveolar macrophages(PAMs).Through bioinformatic analysis,we found that there existed a potential binding site of miR-204 on the 30UTR of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3B(MAP1LC3B,LC3B),a hallmark of autophagy.Applying experiments including luciferase reporter assay and UV cross-linking and immunoprecipitation(CLIP)assay,we demonstrated that miR-204 directly targeted LC3B,thereby downregulating autophagy.Meanwhile,we investigated the interplay between autophagy and PRRSV replication in PAMs,confirming that PRRSV infection induces autophagy,which in turn facilitates viral replication.Overall,we verify that miR-204 suppresses PRRSV replication via inhibiting LC3B-mediated autophagy in PAMs.These findings will provide a novel potential approach for us to develop antiviral therapeutic agents and controlling measures for future PRRSV outbreaks.

A novel CRISPR/Cas9 system with high genomic editing efficiency and recyclable auxotrophic selective marker for multiple-step metabolic rewriting in Pichia pastoris

The methylotrophic budding yeast Pichia pastoris has been utilized to the production of a variety of heterologous recombinant proteins owing to the strong inducible alcohol oxidase promoter(pAOX1).However,it is difficult to use P.pastoris as the chassis cell factory for high-valuable metabolite biosynthesis due to the low homologous recombination(HR)efficiency and the limitation of handy selective markers,especially in the condition of multistep biosynthetic pathways.Hence,we developed a novel CRISPR/Cas9 system with highly editing efficiencies and recyclable auxotrophic selective marker(HiEE-ReSM)to facilitate cell factory in P.pastoris.Firstly,we improved the HR rates of P.pastoris through knocking out the non-homologous-end-joining gene(Δku70)and overexpressing HR-related proteins(RAD52 and RAD59),resulting in higher positive rate compared to the basal strain,achieved 97%.Then,we used the uracil biosynthetic genes PpURA3 as the reverse screening marker,which can improve the recycling efficiency of marker.Meanwhile,the HR rate is still 100%in uracil auxotrophic yeast.Specially,we improved the growth rate of uracil auxotrophic yeast strains by overexpressing the uracil transporter(scFUR4)to increase the uptake of exogenous uracil from medium.Meanwhile,we explored the optimal concentration of uracil(90 mg/L)for strain growth.In the end,the HiEE-ReSM system has been applied for the inositol production(250 mg/L)derived from methanol in P.pastoris.The systems will contribute to P.pastoris as an attractive cell factory for the complex compound biosynthesis through multistep metabolic pathway engineering and will be a useful tool to improve one carbon(C1)bio-utilization.