Landscape of Epstein-Barr virus gene expression and universal perturbations in cancer

Epstein Barr virus is the causative agent for multiple neoplastic diseases of epithelial and lymphocytic origin. The heterogeneity of the viral elements expressed and the mechanisms by which these coding and non-coding genes maintain cancer cell properties in vivo remain elusive. Here we conducted a transcriptomic analysis of 156 EBV associated gastric adenocarcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, endemic Burkitts lymphoma and sporadic Burkitts lymphoma. The viral non coding RNA RPMS1 was ubiquitously expressed in all tumors. RPMS1 was co-expressed with three novel rightward encoded RNA elements co-terminating with RPMS1, named BARE, characterized by full-length single-molecule sequencing.