Although viruses are known for their compact genomes and HCMV hardly contains intergenic regions, four HCMV encoded lincRNAs have been recently identified. Interestingly, these virally encoded lincRNAs comprise over 60% of expressed viral RNA and are highly conserved suggesting an important role in viral pathogenesis. Nonetheless the functions of these highly expressed viral transcripts are largely unknown. We aim to elucidate HCMV’s lincRNAs function by combination of genome- wide and gene specific approaches.
Profiling viral infections
