RNA-seq analysis of poly-A (+) RNA transcripts expressed by replicating Merkel Cell Polyomavirus genomes. MCPyV RNA-seq

poly-A (+) RNA material isolated from PFSK1 cells transfected with either wild type Merkel Cell Polyomavirus episomes (MCVSyn)or a viral mutant unable to express the viral miRNA mcv-miR-M1 (MCVSyn-hpko) was analyzed by RNA-seq to investigate the viral transcription program. To allow identification of transcripts extending over the viral origin of replication, reads were mapped against two concatenated copies of the parental genomes. Mapping positions were subsequently collapsed onto unit length genomes to elucidate the structure of viral transcripts.