Thogotovirus targets de novo recruitement of innate immunity genes

Darya’s TFIIB project got published in Plos Pathogens! Darya discovered a new way to modulate innate immune responses. The ML protein of Thogotovirus targets the general transcription factor 2B (TFIIB). Interestingly, depletion or inhibition of TFIIB only results in altered gene expression for a limited set of genes, predominantly immune-related genes. Darya has found that affected genes require de nono recruitment of the polymerase complex to promoter regions and that genes regulated during the innate immune response are particularly relying on de novo recruitment of the polymerase complex. Great work – neat mechanism!