An efficient adenovirus infection results in high-level accumulation of viral DNA and mRNAs in the infected cell population. However, the average viral DNA and mRNA content in a heterogeneous cell population does not necessarily reflect the same abundance in individual cells. Here, we describe a novel padlock probe-based rolling-circle amplification technique that enables simultaneous detection and analysis of human adenovirus type 5 (HAdV-5) genomic DNA and virus-encoded mRNAs in individual infected cells. We demonstrate that the method is applicable for detection and quantification of HAdV-5 DNA and mRNAs in short-term infections in human epithelial cells and in long-term infections in human B lymphocytes. Single-cell evaluation of these infections revealed high heterogeneity and unique cell subpopulations defined by differential viral DNA content and mRNA expression. Further, our single-cell analysis shows that the specific expression pattern of viral E1A 13S and 12S mRNA splice variants is linked to HAdV-5 DNA content in the individual cells. Furthermore, we show that expression of a mature form of the HAdV-5 histone-like protein VII affects virus genome detection in HAdV-5-infected cells. Collectively, padlock probes combined with rolling-circle amplification should be a welcome addition to the method repertoire for the characterization of the molecular details of the HAdV life cycle in individual infected cells. IMPORTANCE Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) have been extensively used as model systems to study various aspects of eukaryotic gene expression and genome organization. The vast majority of the HAdV studies are based on standard experimental procedures carried out using heterogeneous cell populations, where data averaging often masks biological differences. As every cell is unique, characteristics and efficiency of an HAdV infection can vary from cell to cell. Therefore, the analysis of HAdV gene expression and genome organization would benefit from a method that permits analysis of individual infected cells in the heterogeneous cell population. Here, we show that the padlock probe-based rolling-circle amplification method can be used to study concurrent viral DNA accumulation and mRNA expression patterns in individual HAdV-5-infected cells. Hence, this versatile method can be applied to detect the extent of infection and virus gene expression changes in different HAdV-5 infections.

Ligation-based nucleic acid detection methods are primarily limited to DNA, since they exhibit poor performance on RNA. This is attributed to reduced end-joining efficiency and/or fidelity of ligases. Interestingly, chlorella virus DNA ligase (PBCV-1 DNA ligase) has recently been shown to possess high RNA-templated DNA end-joining activity; however, its fidelity has not yet been systematically evaluated. Herein, we characterized PBCV-1 ligase for its RNA-templated end-joining fidelity at single base mismatches in 3′ and 5′ DNA probe termini and found an overall limited end-joining fidelity. To improve the specificity in PBCV-1 ligase-driven RNA detection assays, we utilized structure-specific 5′ exonucleolytic activity of Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase, used in the invader assay. In the iLock (invader padLock) probe assay, padlock probe molecules are activated prior ligation thus the base at the probe ligation junction is read twice in order to aid successful DNA ligation: first, during structure-specific invader cleavage and then during sequence-specific DNA ligation. We report two distinct iLock probe activation mechanisms and systematically evaluate the assay specificity, including single nucleotide polymorphisms on RNA, mRNA and miRNA. We show significant increase in PBCV-1 ligation fidelity in the iLock probe assay configuration for RNA detection.

Accurate detection of miRNAs with complementary probes is challenging due to the short target size, and often high sequence similarity between isoforms belonging to the same miRNA family. Ligation based methods can provide powerful discrimination of subtle sequence variation among target sequences, but they have been difficult to implement for direct RNA analysis due to the sloppiness and inefficiency of most DNA ligases on RNA substrates. In this work, we have studied if RNA substitutions in padlock probes can provide higher catalytic efficiencies for PBCV-1 DNA ligase on RNA substrates. We also characterise end-joining fidelity for Chlorella virus DNA ligase (PBCV DNA ligase 1) and T4RNA ligase 2 (T4Rnl2) in RNA-templated 3'-OH RNA/5’-pDNA chimeric probe ligation. Although we observed considerable ligation efficiency improvement towards short miRNA targets for PBCV-1 ligated chimeric probes, it showed no sequence specificity towards mismatches at the ligation junction. T4Rnl2 showed some base discrimination, but not satisfactory for robust RNA sequence analysis. To increase end-joining fidelity in PBCV-1 DNA ligase catalysed direct RNA detection assays (iLock probes), we have recently introduced an alternative ligation assay design in which ligation probes first undergo sequence- specific 5’ FLAP removal in order to create ligatable substrates. We have tested various chimeric iLock probe designs where RNA substitutions were introduced at different positions in the FLAP and at the ligation junction. We defined two particular nucleotide positions in the iLock probe sequence that when substituted with RNA, significantly increased iLock probe activation and ligation. We further characterized the end-joining fidelity of PBCV-1 and T4Rnl2 catalysed iLock reactions. Both enzymes showed high ligation fidelities for single nucleotide polymorphisms on RNA and miRNA. Finally, we demonstrate a multiplexed chimeric iLock probe miRNA profiling assay using sequencing-by-ligation as readout. 

F29 (Phi29) DNA polymerase is an enzyme commonly used in DNA amplification methods such as rolling circle amplification (RCA) and multiple strand displacement amplification (MDA), as well as in DNA sequencing methods such as single molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing. Here we report the ability of F29 DNA polymerase to amplify partially RNA-containing circular substrates during RCA. We found that circular substrates with single RNA substitutions support a similar amplification rate as pure DNA substrates. We observed that increasing the number of consecutive RNA substitutions in the circular templates suppress replication, and cannot be recovered by addition of M-MuLV reverse-transcriptase. In summary, this novel ability of F29 to accept RNA-containing substrates broadens the spectrum of applications for F29 mediated RCA. Applications include amplification of chimeric circular probes, such as padlock probes and molecular inversion probes.