ALKBH5 and infection: Somewhat contrary to the reports that point to alphaherpesvirus-induced inhibition/suppression of the m6A writer complex, Feng et al. showed that HSV-1 infection induced an upregulation of the m6A writer components METTL3 and METTL14 early in infection in HeLa cells, followed by a decreased expression later in infection, while expression of the m6A eraser proteins FTO and ALKBH5 were suppressed (43).