TP53 and infection: In LMH cells 6 h post infection (hpi) with ILTV, p53 knockdown significantly reduced the transcription of the immediate-early gene (IEG) ICP4, the early genes (EG) ICP27, VP16, and gC, the early/late gene (E/LG) gI, and the late gene (LG) gG (Mahmoudian et al., 2012), as determined by RT-qPCR, suggesting that p53 plays a regulatory role in the ILTV gene transcription (Figure 1B).