Comparison of DEV infected CEF with control

Duck enteritis virus (DEV) is an important herpesvirus pathogen of waterfowl associated with an acute, highly contagious lethal disease. Using a deep sequencing approach on RNA from infected chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cultures, we determined the global changes in the microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles during DEV infection. In addition to the changes in the expression of a number of host miRNAs as a result of DEV infection, we identified several novel DEV-encoded miRNAs. Unlike most Mardivirus-encoded miRNAs, the majority of the DEV miRNAs were encoded within the unique long region of the viral genome. The precursors of DEV miR-D18 and miR-D19 overlapped with each other suggesting similarities to miRNA-offset RNAs, although only the DEV-miR-D18-3p was functional in reporter assays. Identification of these novel miRNAs will add to the growing list of virus-encoded miRNAs enabling the exploration of their roles in pathogenesis. Each microRNA is spotted on the array 6 times. We compared expression of duck enteritis virus (DEV)-infected chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) with CEF control.