Abstract

HIV-1 latency results from tightly regulated molecular processes that act at distinct steps of HIV-1 gene expression. To elucidate the molecular players that govern latency, we previously performed a dCas9-chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry (Catchet-MS) and identified the interactome of the latent HIV-1 LTR. Here we characterize the Catchet-MS-identified PCI domain-containing 2 (PCID2) protein, a component of the TREX2 complex, to play a dual role in promoting HIV-1 latency by enforcing both transcriptional repression and post-transcriptional blocks to HIV-1 gene expression. PCID2 bound the latent HIV-1 LTR and repressed transcription initiation during latency. Depletion of PCID2 remodelled the chromatin landscape at the HIV-1 promoter and resulted in transcriptional activation and reversal of latency. Immunoprecipitation coupled to Mass Spectrometry identified PCID2-interacting proteins to include members of the spliceosome, including negative viral RNA (vRNA) alternative splicing regulators, and PCID2 depletion resulted in over-splicing of intron-containing vRNA and misregulated expression of vRNA splice variants. We demonstrate that MCM3AP and DSS1, two other RNA-binding TREX2 complex subunits that comprise the dock of the complex also inhibit transcription initiation and viral RNA alternative splicing during latency and similarly to PCID2 function as prominent latency associated repressors of HIV-1 gene expression. Thus, PCID2 is a novel HIV-1 latency-promoting factor, which in context of the TREX2 sub-complex PCID2-DSS1-MCM3AP blocks transcription and dysregulates vRNA processing.