Defining the Host Dependencies and the Transcriptional Landscape of RSV Infection and Bystander Activation

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a globally prevalent pathogen, causes severe disease in older adults, and is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in the United States for children during their first year of life [1]. Despite its prevalence worldwide, RSV-specific treatments remain unavailable for most infected patients. Here, we leveraged a combination of genome-wide CRISPR knockout screening and single-cell RNA sequencing to improve our understanding of the host determinants of RSV infection and the host response in both infected cells, and uninfected bystanders. These data reveal temporal transcriptional patterns that are markedly different between RSV infected and bystander activated cells. Our data show that expression of interferon-stimulated genes is primarily observed in bystander activated cells, while genes implicated in the unfolded protein response and cellular stress are upregulated specifically in RSV infected cells. Furthermore, genome-wide CRISPR screens identified multiple host factors important for viral infection, findings which we contextualize relative to 29 previously published screens across 17 additional viruses. These unique data complement and extend prior studies that investigate the proinflammatory response to RSV infection, and juxtaposed to other viral infections, provide a rich resource for further hypothesis testing.