Effects of host miR-138 on herpes simplex virus 1 gene expression in Neuro-2a cells and their dependence of the binding sites on ICP0 mRNA

We previously showed that miR-138 can repress herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) ICP0 expression by binding to ICP0 mRNA. However, in this study we found that miR-138 can also repress viral gene expression independent of ICP0. Therefore we conducted this RNAseq experiment to assess the effects of miR-138 on expression of each individual viral gene to search for other viral targets of miR-138 Overall design: We transfected Neuro-2a cell with a miR-138 mimic or a scrambled control, and then infected them with wild-type or M138 mutant virus (which contains mutations in the miR-138 binding sites in ICP0 mRNA). For both wild-type and mutant viruses, miR-138 transfected cells were compared with scrambled control transfected cells. Three biological replicates for each condition.