Fig 1.

Expression of the genes in the MDV repeat regions. Quantitative RT-PCR was carried out on mRNAs extracted from two MDV-transformed tumor-derived T-cell lines: a historically established line (RPL1) and a newly established line (265L). Expression of the genes within the long and short repeats was detected. This included genes encoding the viral oncoprotein Meq, the CXC chemokine vIL8, and the viral telomerase subunit vTR, the third microRNA cluster, and transcripts across the LAT/ICP4 region. Expression from the vTR region appeared to be significantly higher; this may be because, as an RNA subunit of telomerase, it is more stable. Adjacent genes encoding lytic proteins, namely, the MDV072 gene in the unique long region and the gene for the phosphoprotein pp38 at the origin of lytic replication, and the unique short region gene US1 showed no detectable expression. Expression is shown relative to that of Meq and normalized to that of GAPDH.