Certain subdominant HSV-1 epitopes become more functional and arise to codominance in TG during HSV-1 S1L latency.

<p>Studies were as detailed in <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006732#ppat.1006732.g009" target="_blank">Fig 9</a>, except that TGs were harvested from infected mice at 30–33 dpi. <b>(A)</b> The order of epitopes is identical to those shown in <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006732#ppat.1006732.g009" target="_blank">Fig 9</a>. For clarity, only the non-gB_498-505 responses are shown in A, but the total percentages are displayed in (B). The bars represent the total number of CD8⁺ T cells producing IFNγ⁺ in response to peptide stimulation, and error bars represent SEM. For significantly different populations, the average fold change increase in population over wild-type is shown. <b>(B)</b> Total fraction of gB_498-505 or non-gB-CD8s depicted in figure (A) that are responding to peptide stimulations. <b>(C)</b> Total fraction of the non-gB_498-505 specific CD8+ T cells depicted in figure (A) that make IFNγ after peptide stimulation. <b>(D)</b> 30 dpi TGs suspensions were stained with tetramers specific to RR1-specific subdominant CD8+ T cell populations (tetramers for RR1 982–989 and 822–829). Shown are the total number of each RR1-specific CD8+ T cell population per TG. The total number of single functional (IFNγ⁺) or multifunctional (IFNγ⁺TNFα⁺CD107a⁺) CD8⁺ T cells after stimulation with a combination RR1 982–989 and 822–829 peptides is also shown. N = 3–7 TG equivalents per group. A t-test was performed for each matched pair of responding CD8⁺ T cells, and a * denotes p<0.05.