Temporal profiling of the coding and noncoding murine cytomegalovirus transcriptomes

The global transcriptional program of murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV), involving coding, noncoding, and antisense transcription, remains unknown. Here we report an oligonucleotide custom microarray platform capable of measuring both coding and noncoding transcription on a genome-wide scale. By profiling MCMV wild-type and immediate-early mutant strains in fibroblasts, we found rapid activation of the transcriptome by 6.5 h postinfection, with absolute dependency on ie3, but not ie1 or ie2, for genomic programming of viral gene expression. Evidence is also presented to show, for the first time, genome-wide noncoding and bidirectional transcription at late stages of MCMV infection.