Transcriptomic Mapping of Nucleoli Reveals Disruption of mtDNA and rDNA Gene Expression During H1N1 Viral Infection

The nucleolus is a membraneless subnuclear structure involved in ribosome biogenesis and cell regulation. This study aimed to determine whether nucleolar conditions reflect viral stresses in other parts of the cell. Human cells were infected with the H1N1 virus, and ARTR-seq was used to enrich nucleolar RNA for sequencing. Sequenced transcripts were mapped to the human genome, followed by differential expression and gene ontology analysis. A reduction in oxidative phosphorylation-related mRNA was observed in infected samples, which agrees with research demonstrating viral disruption of mitochondrial function via downregulation of mtDNA. Infected samples also exhibited more intronic rRNA and proportionally more protein-coding genes. By utilizing the nucleolus as a proxy for the rest of the cell, this technique offers a broad perspective of the cellular stress response to H1N1 virus, with possible applications to other viruses such as COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease