RNA-seq analysis of HZ-AM1 cells infected with Heliothis zea nudivirus 1 at different time points

The aim of this study was to provide a transcriptomic profile of HzNV-1 in an ovary-derived cell line of Helicoverpa zea (HZ AM1), during early (3, 6, 9 hours post-infection) and advanced (12, 24 hours post-infection) stages of infection. The virus- and mock-infected (0 hpi, 12 hpi, 24 hpi) cells were harvested at the defined time points for RNA extraction by removing the medium and washing them once in 1x phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). After PBS removal, 1 mL of TRIzol(R) (Thermo Fisher Scientific) was quickly added to the cells in the T25 flasks. The cells were detached with a bent glass pipette and, at the same time, resuspended in the TRIzol(R). A micropipette was then used to homogenize the cell TRIzol suspension by pipetting up and down. Next, the 1 mL cell TRIzol suspension was transferred to a 1.5 mL reaction tube, and the RNA was purified using the conventional phenol-chloroform extraction protocol. The samples were subjected to poly(A) enrichment, and the sequencing library was prepared using the TruSeq Stranded Total RNA Library Prep Gold. RNA-seq was performed on the Illumina platform, and paired-end reads were generated.