Do You Believe in ReincaRNAtion? Herpesviruses Reveal Connection between RNA Decay and Synthesis
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Updated: Apr 5, 2026

Functional Imaging of Viral Transcription Factories Using 3D Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: January 18, 2018
Joseph Russo1, Jeffrey Wilusz1
1Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Abstract:
Many viruses degrade host mRNAs to reduce competition for proteins/ribosomes and promote viral gene expression. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Abernathy et al. (2015) demonstrate that a herpesviral RNA endonuclease induces host transcriptional repression that is mediated through the decay factor Xrn1 and evaded by viral genes.
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