Establishment of murine cytomegalovirus latency in vivo is associated with changes in histone modifications and recruitment of transcriptional repressors to the major immediate-early promoter.

ABSTRACT: Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus with the ability to establish a lifelong latent infection. The mechanism by which this occurs is not well understood. Regulation of, for example, immediate-early (IE) gene expression is thought to be a critical control point in transcriptional control of the switch between latency and reactivation. Here, we present evidence that supports previous studies showing that the majority of genomes are quiescent with respect to gene expression. To study the possible role of epigenetic factors that may be involved in repression of ie gene expression in latency, we have analyzed changes in the patterns of modifications of histones bound to the major IE promoter (MIEP) in the kidneys of acutely and latently infected mice. Our studies show that,

SUBMITTER: Liu XF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2573207 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature