Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Atlas of HIV cis-regulatory elements reveals extensive transcriptional variation across clades, isolates, and within individuals
doi: 10.64898/2026.04.03.716403
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Schematic of MPRAs tiling through HIV genomes, saturation mutagenesis, and evaluation of different isolates. (B) Saturation mutagenesis MPRA experiments in unstimulated Jurkat cells for four tiles in the HIV-1 LTR from the clade B REJO strain that show transcriptional activity. Region coordinates are provided using standardized HXB2 genomic coordinates. TF motifs that contribute to activity are outlined. Inset shows MPRA activity tiling through the HIV-1 LTR. Blue indicates activity of tiles in the sense, and red in the antisense (opposite orientation) strand. (C) CASCADE-derived motifs for different cofactors at various regions of the HIV-1 LTR. (D) Regional distribution of HIV-1 isolates tested by MPRAs. (E) Violin plots showing the distribution of activity in unstimulated Jurkat cells across 5,569 isolates for different regions of the HIV-1 LTR across clades. The thick black line indicates the median, and the dotted lines indicate the first and third quartiles. The dots heatmaps below indicate the fold activation by stimulation of Jurkat cells with αCD3+PMA, TNFα, or IFNγ. The color indicates the median fold activation across isolates, whereas the size of the dots reflects the fold activity differences between the 5th and 95th percentiles. (F) Pearson correlation between the activity of different regions of the HIV-1 LTR across isolates. (G) Schematic of chimeric proviral constructs and reactivation experimental approach. (H-I) Fold change in GFP+ cells relative to DMSO control (H) or geometric mean fluorescence intensity of GFP+ cells (I) in Jurkat cells infected with chimeric proviruses carrying the U3 region of the indicated isolates from clades A, B, and C, and stimulated with TNFα for 2 days. (J) Comparison between fold activation of MPRA data from tile HXB2:250-431 in Jurkat cells activated with TNFα, and provirus reactivation by TNFα measured as fold change in GFP+ cells relative to DMSO control or geometric mean fluorescence intensity of GFP+ cells. Pearson correlation coefficients and one-tailed p-values are indicated for each comparison to MPRA data. (K) Dot heatmaps of recombinant HIV-1 viruses derived from clades B and C. Median baseline activity in tile HXB2:250-431 is shown in shades of green, whereas the median fold activation by αCD3+PMA, TNFα, or IFNγ is shown blue-white-red gradient. The size for the dots reflects the fold activity differences between the 5th and 95th percentiles.
Article Snippet: Jurkat cells (ATCC-TIB-15) were cultured in RPMI media (Fisher Scientific, Catalogue # A1049101) with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (R&D Systems, Catalog # S12450H) and 1% Antibiotic-antimicotic (Thermofisher Scientific, Catalogue #15240062) up to a density of 1 million cells per mL prior to transfection.
Techniques: Mutagenesis, Activity Assay, Derivative Assay, Activation Assay, Construct, Control, Fluorescence, Infection, Comparison, One-tailed Test, Recombinant