The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes
Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that infects chickens and poses a serious threat to poultry health. In infected animals, MDV efficiently replicates in B cells in various lymphoid organs. Despite many years of research, the viral transcriptome in primary target...
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MDPI AG
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Viruses |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/3/264 |
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| author | Luca D. Bertzbach Florian Pfaff Viktoria I. Pauker Ahmed M. Kheimar Dirk Höper Sonja Härtle Axel Karger Benedikt B. Kaufer |
| author_facet | Luca D. Bertzbach Florian Pfaff Viktoria I. Pauker Ahmed M. Kheimar Dirk Höper Sonja Härtle Axel Karger Benedikt B. Kaufer |
| author_sort | Luca D. Bertzbach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that infects chickens and poses a serious threat to poultry health. In infected animals, MDV efficiently replicates in B cells in various lymphoid organs. Despite many years of research, the viral transcriptome in primary target cells of MDV remained unknown. In this study, we uncovered the transcriptional landscape of the very virulent RB1B strain and the attenuated CVI988/Rispens vaccine strain in primary chicken B cells using high-throughput RNA-sequencing. Our data confirmed the expression of known genes, but also identified a novel spliced MDV gene in the unique short region of the genome. Furthermore, de novo transcriptome assembly revealed extensive splicing of viral genes resulting in coding and non-coding RNA transcripts. A novel splicing isoform of MDV UL15 could also be confirmed by mass spectrometry and RT-PCR. In addition, we could demonstrate that the associated transcriptional motifs are highly conserved and closely resembled those of the host transcriptional machinery. Taken together, our data allow a comprehensive re-annotation of the MDV genome with novel genes and splice variants that could be targeted in further research on MDV replication and tumorigenesis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:33:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-aeb1be1fbe8d4b59a28a282c53892923 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4915 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:33:43Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Viruses |
| spelling | doaj.art-aeb1be1fbe8d4b59a28a282c538929232022-12-21T18:15:02ZengMDPI AGViruses1999-49152019-03-0111326410.3390/v11030264v11030264The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and GenesLuca D. Bertzbach0Florian Pfaff1Viktoria I. Pauker2Ahmed M. Kheimar3Dirk Höper4Sonja Härtle5Axel Karger6Benedikt B. Kaufer7Institute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, Robert von Ostertag-Straße 7-13, 14163 Berlin, GermanyInstitute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, GermanyInstitute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, GermanyInstitute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, Robert von Ostertag-Straße 7-13, 14163 Berlin, GermanyInstitute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, GermanyDepartment of Veterinary Sciences, Institute for Animal Physiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80539 Munich, GermanyInstitute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, GermanyInstitute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, Robert von Ostertag-Straße 7-13, 14163 Berlin, GermanyMarek’s disease virus (MDV) is an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that infects chickens and poses a serious threat to poultry health. In infected animals, MDV efficiently replicates in B cells in various lymphoid organs. Despite many years of research, the viral transcriptome in primary target cells of MDV remained unknown. In this study, we uncovered the transcriptional landscape of the very virulent RB1B strain and the attenuated CVI988/Rispens vaccine strain in primary chicken B cells using high-throughput RNA-sequencing. Our data confirmed the expression of known genes, but also identified a novel spliced MDV gene in the unique short region of the genome. Furthermore, de novo transcriptome assembly revealed extensive splicing of viral genes resulting in coding and non-coding RNA transcripts. A novel splicing isoform of MDV UL15 could also be confirmed by mass spectrometry and RT-PCR. In addition, we could demonstrate that the associated transcriptional motifs are highly conserved and closely resembled those of the host transcriptional machinery. Taken together, our data allow a comprehensive re-annotation of the MDV genome with novel genes and splice variants that could be targeted in further research on MDV replication and tumorigenesis.http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/3/264Marek’s disease virus (MDV)RNA-seqtranscriptomesplicingpolycistronic viral transcriptsprimary B cellsRB1BCVI988/RispensICP0 |
| spellingShingle | Luca D. Bertzbach Florian Pfaff Viktoria I. Pauker Ahmed M. Kheimar Dirk Höper Sonja Härtle Axel Karger Benedikt B. Kaufer The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes Viruses Marek’s disease virus (MDV) RNA-seq transcriptome splicing polycistronic viral transcripts primary B cells RB1B CVI988/Rispens ICP0 |
| title | The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes |
| title_full | The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes |
| title_fullStr | The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes |
| title_short | The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes |
| title_sort | transcriptional landscape of marek s disease virus in primary chicken b cells reveals novel splice variants and genes |
| topic | Marek’s disease virus (MDV) RNA-seq transcriptome splicing polycistronic viral transcripts primary B cells RB1B CVI988/Rispens ICP0 |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/3/264 |
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