Splicing of rhesus rhadinovirus R15 and ORF74 bicistronic transcripts during lytic infection and analysis of effects on production of vCD200 and vGPCR.

Rhesus macaque rhadinovirus (RRV) is the rhesus macaque homologue of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Here we examine expression of RRV R15 and ORF74, homologues of K14 and ORF74 of HHV-8, respectively. As in HHV-8, transcripts encoding RRV R15 and ORF74 are bicistronic. However, unlike what has been suggested for HHV-8, RRV R15- and ORF74-encoding transcripts are expressed late during lytic infection and undergo unique splicing events that result in the production of transcripts capable of encoding vGPCR, as well as membrane-associated and secreted forms of vCD200. The alternative splicing for vCD200 has implications for viral pathogenesis.