Daxx interacts with HIV-1 integrase and inhibits lentiviral gene expression

The death-associated protein Daxx is a ubiquitously expressed gene in mammals and is widely involved in transcriptional regulation and cellular intrinsic immune response against incoming virus. We found here that knocking down endogenous Daxx with specific siRNA increased HIV-1-derived lentiviral reporter gene expression in 293T cells. This repressive effect of Daxx is not due to its inhibition on viral gene integration into the cellular genome and is independent of the ubiquitin promoter on the vFUGW lentiviral vector. Instead, this inhibition is dependent on Daxx’s interaction with HIV-1 integrase. A histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitor increased reporter gene expression to the level similar to Daxx knockdown in vFUGW infected cells but there was no additive effect in combination of HDACs inhibitor and Daxx-specific siRNA. Our results suggest that Daxx may associate with HIV-1-derived lentiviral DNA via interacting with HIV-1 integrase and recruit HDACs to viral DNA to repress lentiviral gene expression.