The Transcriptional Landscape of Marek’s Disease Virus in Primary Chicken B Cells Reveals Novel Splice Variants and Genes

Marek's disease virus (MDV) belongs to the alphaherpesviruses and is the causative agent of fatal T cell lymphomas in chickens. Aftermaths of MDV infections lead to substantial losses in poultry industry and there is evidence that MDV constantly evolves towards higher virulence. This study takes a detailed look at the very first step of the viral life cycle in the host: the infection of B cells. Recently, it has become possible to culture and infect primary chicken B cells ex vivo, enabling us to apply those cells to RNAseq analysis. Here, we provide novel insights into MDV gene expression profiles and post-transcriptional modifications of this important poultry pathogen in its primary target cells for lytic replication. Remarkably enough, we could detect a novel hypothetical MDV gene, identify multicistronic transcripts and previously unannotated splice forms. These findings lay the foundation for future research on MDV replication and pathogenesis and the developed bioinformatics pipeline can be easily transferred to other herpesviruses or large DNA viruses to identify unknown transcript isoforms and associated motifs.

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