Figure 2.
Characterisation of UL34 as an augmenting viral protein with leaky late expression kinetics. (A) Intracellular HCMV genome copies at 120 HPI, relative to genome copies at 12 HPI. MOI = 3, n = 3, bars = SD. (B) Western blot analysis of UL34 expression in MRC5 cells treated with 100 μg/mL phosphonoacetic acid (PAA) and subsequently infected with either AD169-GFP WT or AD169 HA-UL34 HCMV (5 DPI, MOI = 3). Membranes were probed with primary antibodies against HCMV viral proteins, HA, or β-actin loading control. (C) Immuno-fluorescence analysis of host GM130 and viral UL99 in WT MRC5 cells infected with WT or ΔUL34 AD169-GFP virus. 4 DPI, MOI = 0.1, scale bars = 20 μm. (D) Growth kinetics of ΔUL34 AD169-GFP virus, as measured by IE1 fluorescent focus assay in cell culture supernatants from WT and UL34-complementing MRC5 cells. MOI = 3, n = 3, bars = SD. (E) Spread of ΔUL34 AD169-GFP virus in WT and UL34-complementing MRC5 cells, as quantified by fixing, staining, and counting IE1 positive cells at indicated time points. MOI = 0.01, n = 3, bars = SD.