The DNA genome of eukaryotic cells is compacted by histone proteins within the nucleus to form chromatin. Nuclear-replicating viruses such as adenovirus have evolved mechanisms of chromatin manipulation to promote infection and subvert host defenses. Epigenetic factors may also regulate persistent adenovirus infection and reactivation in lymphoid tissues. In this review, we discuss the viral proteins E1A and protein VII that interact with and alter host chromatin, as well as E4orf3, which separates host chromatin from sites of viral replication. We also highlight recent advances in chromatin technologies that offer new insights into virus-directed chromatin manipulation. Beyond the role of chromatin in the viral replication cycle, we discuss the nature of persistent viral genomes in lymphoid tissue and cell lines, and the potential contribution of epigenetic signals in maintaining adenovirus in a quiescent state. By understanding the mechanisms through which adenovirus manipulates host chromatin, we will understand new aspects of this ubiquitous virus and shed light on previously unknown aspects of chromatin biology.

© 2016 The Authors.Mucosal lymphocytes support latent infections of species C adenoviruses. Because infected lymphocytes resist re-infection with adenovirus, we sought to identify changes in cellular gene expression that could inhibit the infectious process. The expression of over 30,000 genes was evaluated by microarray in persistently infected B-and T-lymphocytic cells. BBS9, BNIP3, BTG3, CXADR, SLFN11 and SPARCL1 were the only genes differentially expressed between mock and infected B cells. Most of these genes are associated with oncogenesis or cancer progression. Histone deacetylase and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors released the repression of some of these genes. Cellular and viral gene expression was compared among leukemic cell lines following adenovirus infection. Childhood leukemic B-cell lines resist adenovirus infection and also show reduced expression of CXADR and SPARCL. Thus adenovirus induces limited changes to infected B-cell lines that are similar to changes observed in childhood leukemic cell lines.

The adenovirus death protein (ADP) is expressed at late times during a lytic infection of species C adenoviruses. ADP promotes the release of progeny virus by accelerating the lysis and death of the host cell. Since some human lymphocytes survive while maintaining a persistent infection with species C adenovirus, we compared ADP expression in these cells with ADP expression in lymphocytes that proceed with a lytic infection. Levels of ADP were low in KE37 and BJAB cells, which support a persistent infection. In contrast, levels of ADP mRNA and protein were higher in Jurkat cells, which proceed with a lytic infection. Epithelial cells infected with an ADP-overexpressing virus died more quickly than epithelial cells infected with an ADP-deleted virus. However, KE37, and BJAB cells remained viable after infection with the ADP-overexpressing virus. Although the levels of ADP mRNA increased in KE37 and BJAB cells infected with the ADP-overexpressing virus, the fraction of cells with detectable ADP was unchanged, suggesting that the control of ADP expression differs between epithelial and lymphocytic cells. When infected with an ADP-deleted adenovirus, Jurkat cells survived and maintained viral DNA for greater than 1 month. These findings are consistent with the notion that the level of ADP expression determines whether lymphocytic cells proceed with a lytic or a persistent adenovirus infection.

Species C adenovirus establishes a latent infection in lymphocytes of the tonsils and adenoids. To understand how this lytic virus is maintained in these cells, four human lymphocytic cell lines that support the entire virus life cycle were examined. The T-cell line Jurkat ceased proliferation and died shortly after virus infection. BJAB, Ramos (B cells), and KE37 (T cells) continued to divide at nearly normal rates while replicating the virus genome. Viral genome numbers peaked and then declined in BJAB cells below one genome per cell at 130 to 150 days postinfection. Ramos and KE37 cells maintained the virus genome at over 100 copies per cell over a comparable period of time. BJAB cells maintained the viral DNA as a monomeric episome. All three persistently infected cells lost expression of the cell surface coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) within 24 h postinfection, and CAR expression remained low for at least 340 days postinfection. CAR loss proceeded via a two-stage process. First, an initial loss of cell surface staining for CAR required virus late gene expression and a CAR-binding fiber protein even while CAR protein and mRNA levels remained high. Second, CAR mRNA disappeared at around 30 days postinfection and remained low even after virus DNA was lost from the cells. At late times postinfection (day 180), BJAB cells could not be reinfected with adenovirus, even when CAR was reintroduced to the cells via retroviral transduction, suggesting that the expression of multiple genes had been stably altered in these cells following infection.