Genome-wide identification of direct HBx genomic targets

Background: The Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) HBx regulatory protein is required for HBV replication and involved in HBV related carcinogenesis. HBx interacts with chromatin modifying enzymes and transcription factors to modulate histone post-translational modifications and to regulate viral cccDNA transcription and cellular gene expression. Aiming to identify genes and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) directly targeted by HBx, we performed a chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) to analyse HBV recruitment on host cell chromatin in cells replicating HBV.