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Kinetic Analysis of a Complete Poxvirus Transcriptome Reveals a Novel Class of Genes
Author(s) -
Assarsson Erika,
Greenbaum Jason A.,
Sundstrom Magnus,
Schaffer Lana,
Pasquetto Valerie,
Oseroff Carla,
Tscharke David,
Sidney John,
Grey Howard,
Head Steven,
Peters Bjoern,
Sette Alessandro
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.855.16
Subject(s) - vaccinia , gene , orthopoxvirus , genome , biology , genetics , variola virus , gene expression , virus , poxviridae , virology , transcriptome , recombinant dna
Vaccinia virus is the prototypic orthopoxvirus and was the vaccine used to eradicate smallpox, yet the expression profiles of many of its genes remain unknown. Using a genome tiling array approach, we simultaneously measured the expression levels of all 223 annotated vaccinia virus genes during infection and determined their kinetics. Almost all of the genes were transcribed, and for 62 of these, this is the first empirical evidence of expression. Most remarkably, classification of the genes by their expression profiles revealed 35 genes exhibiting immediate‐early expression. Although a similar kinetic class has been described for other virus families, this is the first demonstration of its existence in orthopoxviruses. Despite expression levels higher than for genes in the other 3 kinetic classes, the functions of more than half of these remain unknown. Additionally, genes within each kinetic class were spatially grouped together in the genome. This genome‐wide picture of transcription alters our understanding of how orthopoxviruses regulate gene expression. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants ROI‐AI‐56268 and HHSN266200400124C.