Interestingly, the expression of US18 and US20 during HCMV infection overlapped with the time windows when we detected BMP9 secretion of HCMV-infected cells (Fig. 3D), indicating a concurrence of the host-generated BMP9-mediated enhancement of the antiviral immune response with the antagonistic virus-encoded inhibitors of BMP signaling. Here, GDF2 is linked to cytomegalovirus infection.