An inducible promoter mediates abundant expression from the immediate-early 2 gene region of human cytomegalovirus at late times after infection.

An abundant late transcript of 1.5 kb originates from the immediate-early 2 (IE-2) gene region of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) at late times after infection. The transcriptional start of this RNA was precisely mapped, and the putative promoter region was cloned in front of the CAT gene as reporter. This region, which comprises 78 nucleotides of IE-2 sequence upstream of the determined cap site, was strongly activated by viral superinfection at late times in the replicative cycle. As shown by RNase protection analyses, the authentic transcription start is used. No activation of this late promoter was observed after cotransfection with an expression plasmid containing the HCMV IE-1 and -2 gene region. This result suggests that, compared with early and early late promoters of HCMV, different or additional viral functions are required for the activation of true late promoters.