title: Decoding human cytomegalovirus.
abstract: The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) genome was sequenced 20 years ago. However, like those of other complex viruses, our understanding of its protein coding potential is far from complete. We used ribosome profiling and transcript analysis to experimentally define the HCMV translation products and follow their temporal expression. We identified hundreds of previously unidentified open reading frames and confirmed a fraction by means of mass spectrometry. We found that regulated use of alternative transcript start sites plays a broad role in enabling tight temporal control of HCMV protein expression and allowing multiple distinct polypeptides to be generated from a single genomic locus. Our results reveal an unanticipated complexity to the HCMV coding capacity and illustrate the role of regulated changes in transcript start sites in generating this complexity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisico, CA 94158, USA.
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stern-Ginossar
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weisburd
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Michalski
authors.forename: Vu Thuy Khanh
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Marco Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.forename: Sheng-Xiong
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Shu-Bing
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hengel
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Nicholas T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Ingolia
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Weissman
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D020543:Proteome / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome