A single-cell approach to the elusive latent human cytomegalovirus transcriptome

Felicia Goodrum, Shannon McWeeney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Herpesvirus latency has been difficult to understand molecularly due to low levels of viral genomes and gene expression. In the case of the betaherpesvirus human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), this is further complicated by the heterogeneity inherent to hematopoietic subpopulations harboring genomes and, as a consequence, the various patterns of infection that simultaneously exist in a host, ranging from latent to lytic. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) provides tremendous potential in measuring the gene expression profiles of heterogeneous cell populations for a wide range of applications, including in studies of cancer, immunology, and infectious disease. A recent study by Shnayder et al. (mBio 9:e00013-18, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00013-18) utilized scRNA-seq to define transcriptomal characteristics of HCMV latency. They conclude that latency-associated gene expression is similar to the late lytic viral program but at lower levels of expression. The study highlights the numerous challenges, from the definition of latency to the analysis of scRNA-seq, that exist in defining a latent transcriptome.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere01001-18
JournalmBio
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2018

Keywords

  • Cytomegalovirus
  • Herpesviruses
  • MARS-Seq
  • ScRNA-seq
  • Transcriptome

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Virology

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