Fig. 4: Ectopic expression of known HCMV entry receptors in monocytes leads to productive infection.

a Flow cytometry analysis of THP1 and THP1-PDGFRα infected with HCMV-GFP at 3 dpi. b Flow cytometry analysis of THP1-PDGFRα infected with HCMV–GFP at 3 dpi showing HCMV-GFP level versus PDGFRα surface level. c Viral DNA levels in infected THP1 and THP1-PDGFRα at 24, 72 and 120 hpi, measured by qPCR and normalized to a cellular genomic target. n = 2. d Nuclear viral genome counts in THP1 and THP1-PDGFRα monocytes at 12 hpi by DNA-FISH (n = 112 and n = 84, respectively). P-value was calculated using Poisson regression. e Quantification of viral particles within the cytoplasm of infected THP1 and THP1-PDGFRα monocytes using HCMV-UL32-GFP at 1 hpi (n = 78 and n = 62, respectively). Viral particles were counted using FIJI image processing, and statistics was performed using Poisson regression. f Proportion of new viral reads out of the total new reads detected by SLAM-seq in infected THP1 and THP1-PDGFRα monocytes. Infected cells were labeled with 4sU at 3 hpi and harvested for SLAM-seq after 2 or 3 h of labeling. g THP1 monocytes with constitutive PDGFRα expression, inducible PDGFRα expression or control cells, were infected with HCMV-GFP. Viral genomes in supernatants were quantified by qPCR at 8 dpi. Mean viral DNA levels relative to the control are presented. n = 3. p-value was calculated using a two-sided Student t test. h THP1 monocytes with constitutive  PDGFRα expression, inducible PDGFRα expression or control cells were infected with HCMV-GFP. Supernatants harvested at 8 dpi were applied to wild-type fibroblasts, and GFP-positive cells were measured 48 h later by flow cytometry to determine PFU. Mean values are presented. n = 6. p-value was calculated using a two-sided Student t test. Source data for Fig. 4c–e, g, h are provided as a Source data file. Gating strategies for Fig. 4a, b are shown in Fig. S1a.