Cytomegalovirus latency-the sum of subtleties.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a betaherpesvirus, which, like all herpesviruses, establishes a life-long latent infection while retaining the ability to reactivate its replicative program. While HCMV likely reactivates frequently and sporadically in healthy individuals and typically without disease, reactivation poses a serious disease threat in the immunocompromised. The latent program of HCMV is complex and has been challenging to define due to limitations in appropriate experimental model systems related to virus-host species specificity, limited identification of latent reservoirs, and the dynamic cellular differentiation of the hematopoietic latency reservoir that is directly linked to latency maintenance and reactivation phenotypes. Here, we review the current understanding of HCMV latency, with a focus on cross-cutting principles derived collectively from experimental culture models and animal models using the corresponding orthologs (CMVs) to HCMV.