FIG. 5.

Quantitative comparison of US28 and HCMV DNA polymerase gene transcription in HCMV-infected THP-1 cells at day 7 p.i. RT-PCR samples are visualized on agarose gels as described in Fig. 2. The primer sets that correspond to each of the panels are indicated on the right of each panel. Black arrowheads denote the relevant PCR products. (A) Sensitivity of RT-PCR for the detection of US28 and HCMV DNA polymerase cDNA. The amount of target cDNA molecules that was included in each RT-PCR sample is indicated at the top. (B) Quantification of HCMV-infected THP-1 cells transcribing either US28 or the HCMV DNA polymerase gene at day 7 p.i. The quantities on top correspond to the amount of cells that were taken from the original HCMV-infected THP-1 culture and mixed with uninfected THP-1 cells to a total of 2 × 10⁵ prior to cDNA preparation and RT-PCR. (C) Quantification of US28- and HCMV DNA polymerase-specific transcripts in untreated and PAA-treated HCMV-infected THP-1 cells at day 7 p.i. The dilution factor of each cDNA sample relative to an initial sample representing 2 × 10⁵ cells is indicated on the top. Abbreviations: M, mock-infected; I, HCMV-infected; I/PAA, infected and PAA-treated; −RT, sample not treated with reverse transcriptase.