A Systems Survey of Progressive Host-Cell Reorganization during Rotavirus Infection

Pathogen invasion is often accompanied by widespread alterations in cellular physiology, which reflects the hijacking of host factors and processes for pathogen entry and replication. Although genetic perturbation screens have revealed the complexity of host factors involved for numerous pathogens, it has remained challenging to temporally define the progression of events in host cell reorganization during infection. We combine high-confidence genome-scale RNAi screening of host factors required for rotavirus infection in human intestinal cells with an innovative approach to infer the trajectory of virus infection from fixed cell populations. This approach reveals a comprehensive network of host cellular processes involved in rotavirus infection and implicates AMPK in initiating the development of a rotavirus-permissive environment. Our work provides a powerful approach that can be generalized to order complex host cellular requirements along a trajectory of cellular reorganization during pathogen invasion.