Chromatin is folded into compartments, loops, and domains. It has two types of compartments; A and B. The A compartment has active genes and the B compartment silenced genes. The two are separate.
However, infected lung cells show a mingling of the compartments. These genes are activated in response to viral infection. This could explain why infected patients release fewer interferons than in other viral infections.
The infected cells have depleted cohesin proteins. This results in loosely folded domains that are not activated. This is a manipulation that may make the virus interfere with cellular defenses.
Infected …
