{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T08:46:12Z","timestamp":1785919572508,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,31]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":40,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,31]],"date-time":"2026-07-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785456000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["P20 GM113126"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P20 GM113126"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cwqze88","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in transplant patients and is a major cause of congenital disease. Understanding the role of viral genes during infection, viral replication, and viral latency establishment and reactivation is key to the development of new antivirals, which are currently limited. The viral RL11 is a conserved, but understudied viral locus, with previously described roles in specific phases of the viral lifecycle. Antisense to and within the RL11 region are two unrelated genes, including UL2. In this study, we investigate the role of UL2 during viral infection and find that UL2 is not required for lytic replication nor required for viral infection, latency establishment (or persistence) and reactivation in either THP-1 monocytes or primary human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). As viral genes are evolutionarily optimized for viral fitness, this study suggests that HCMV UL2 has a role outside of viral fitness and may be a unique target or contributor to HCMV-mediated processes including immune response or other viral co-factor regulation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.07.30.741858","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T04:00:19Z","timestamp":1785556819000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Human cytomegalovirus UL2 is not required for lytic replication or viral latency and reactivation"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Amara","family":"Bryant","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chris","family":"Held","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kamryn","family":"Pfenning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"},{"name":"Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1248-253X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lindsey B.","family":"Crawford","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"},{"name":"Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3947\/ic.2013.45.3.260"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-62703-788-4_2"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/ofid\/ofv193"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2019.01186"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"649690","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2021.649690","article-title":"Congenital Human Cytomegalovirus Infection Inducing Sensorineural Hearing Loss","volume":"12","year":"2021","journal-title":"Frontiers in microbiology"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"569381","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2020.569381","article-title":"Viral Infections in HSCT: Detection, Monitoring, Clinical Management, and Immunologic Implications","volume":"11","year":"2021","journal-title":"Frontiers in immunology"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1099\/vir.0.18856-0"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/ve\/veae066"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.74.17.7720-7729.2000"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/jvi.76.5.2316-2328.2002"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/JVI.76.17.8596-8608.2002"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.06.28.735103:2026.06.28.735103"},{"key":"2026080501000876000_2026.07.30.741858v1.13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Crawford LB , Kim JH , Collins-McMillen D , Lee BJ , Landais I , Held C , Nelson JA , Yurochko AD , Caposio P . 2018. 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