Newcastle disease virus genotype VII gene expression in experimentally infected birds

Newcastle disease virus genotype VII (NDV-GVII) is a highly contagious pathogen responsible for pandemics that have caused devastating economic losses in the poultry industry. Several features in the transcription of NDV mRNA, including differentially expressed genes across the viral genome, are shared with that for other single, non-segmented, negative-strand viruses. Previous studies measuring viral gene expression using northern blotting indicated that the NDV transcription produced non-equimolar levels of viral mRNAs. However, deep high-throughput sequencing of virus-infected tissues can provide a better insight into the patterns of viral transcription. In this report, the transcription pattern of virulent NDV-GVII was analysed using RNA-seq and qRT-PCR. This study revealed the transcriptional profiling of these highly pathogenic NDV-GVII genes: NP:P:M:F:HN:L, in which there was a slight attenuation at the NP:P and HN:L gene boundaries. Our result also provides a fully comprehensive qPCR protocol for measuring viral transcript abundance that may be more convenient for laboratories where accessing RNA-seq is not feasible.