The African Swine Fever Virus Transcriptome
Cackett, G, Matelska, D, Sýkora, M, Portugal, R, Malecki, M, Bähler, J, Dixon, L, Werner, F
Abstract
African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes hemorrhagic fever in domestic \npigs, presenting the biggest global threat to animal farming in recorded history. Despite the importance of ASFV, little is known about the mechanisms and regulation \nof ASFV transcription. Using RNA sequencing methods, we have determined total \nRNA abundance, transcription start sites, and transcription termination sites at \nsingle-nucleotide resolution. This allowed us to characterize DNA consensus motifs \nof early and late ASFV core promoters, as well as a polythymidylate sequence determinant for transcription termination. Our results demonstrate that ASFV utilizes alternative transcription start sites between early and late stages of infection and that \nASFV RNA polymerase (RNAP) undergoes promoter-proximal transcript slippage at 5= \nends of transcription units, adding quasitemplated AU- and AUAU-5= extensions to \nmRNAs. Here, we present the first much-needed genome-wide transcriptome study \nthat provides unique insight into ASFV transcription and serves as a resource to aid \nfuture functional analyses of ASFV genes which are essential to combat this devastating disease.