Gene expression changes in mouse dendritic cell line DC2.4 infected with mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) at 3 and 18 hours post-infection

Beta-herpesviruses infect the majority of human population and are associated with a wide range of pathologic conditions. One of the critical points in the life-cycle of beta-herpesviruses is the development of a structure called assembly compartment within the infected cells, which is composed of host-cell-derived membranous elements. In this study, using mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) as a model to study beta-herpesvirus biology, we investigated spatio-temporal analysis of assembly compartment using a combination of immunofluorescence, confocal microscopy and RNASeq analysis. RNASeq analysis was performed to investigate the expression patterns of the genes encoding markers of the assembly compartment within the infected cells during early (E) phase of the infection. For this, we used mouse dendritic cell line DC2.4 infected with the wild-type strain of MCMV (wtMCMV) and gene expression changes were evaluated at 3 and 18 hours post infection (hpi). In total 9 RNA samples were analyzed: mock infected cells, wtMCMV-infected cells at 3hpi, and wtMCMV infected cells at 18hpi, all in triplicate.