FIG 2 .

TMER4 miRNAs are not required for splenic latency. (A) Sequences of TMER4 mutant viruses. Nucleotides on the first line (black) correspond to vtRNA4, those on the second line (green) correspond to miR-M1-5 pre-miRNA, and those on the third line (blue) correspond to miR-M1-6 pre-miRNA. Red indicates locations of miRNA see sequence mutations. Lines on the TMER4 mFold predicted structure indicate miRNA seed sequence locations. (B) A limiting dilution nested PCR for viral genome was performed on B6 splenocytes exactly as described for Fig. 1. (C) Northern blotting for TMER4 vtRNA-linked transcripts was performed on RNA isolated from NIH 3T12 fibroblasts infected for 18 h. Probe was complementary to vtRNA4. In silico-predicted structures of vtRNA4 and vtRNA4 plus one stem-loop are indicated.