Single-stranded RNA viruses activate and hijack host apical DNA damage response kinases for efficient viral replication

The ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and ATM-Rad3-related (ATR) are apical kinases that orchestrate the multifaceted DNA damage response (DDR) to a variety of genotoxic insults and regulate genomic stability. Whether RNA virus also manipulates the host’s DDR machine to facilitate replication is largely unknown. In this study, we revealed that single-stranded RNA virus replication specifically elicits host ATM- and ATR-mediated pathway activation and boosts their expression. The activated ATM and ATR are hijacked to the virus replication factory in the cytoplasm and facilitate viral gene expression and replication. Specific inhibitors targeting ATM and ATR strikingly block the viral proliferation and replication and inhibit expression of virus proteins. Our results reveal a novel, or otherwise noncanonical, conserved function of ATM/ATR outside DDR in promoting the replication of single-stranded RNA virus and provide an important mechanism of host–pathogen interactions.