Figure 4. An initial burst of viral gene expression occurs in infected cells prior to silencing and is driven by the UL135 protein.
THP-1 cells were pre-treated with Actinomycin D or DMSO control for 30 minutes, then infected with WT or ΔUL135STOP HCMV (MOI = 2). Total RNA was collected over a time course of 24 hours and viral transcripts were quantified by RT-qPCR. Error bars represent SEM between three biological replicates analyzed in triplicate. All samples were compared by two-way Anova with Tukey’s multiple comparison tests across time and within experimental groups (DMSO vs Actinomycin D for each virus and WT vs ΔUL135STOP for both DMSO and Actinomycin D treatments). Statistical significance where *, P < 0.05; ***, P < 0.0005 and ****, P < 0.00005.