Although we previously noticed that the egr-1 and KSHVencoded ORF50 followed a similar expression pattern, the experiments were conducted in TPA-induced cells to evaluate their expression during the reactivation process [6] . The present study discovered that the transcriptional activity of egr-1 and ORF50 and their subsequent translation is comparable and followed a similar pattern during de novo KSHV infection (Fig. 3) . However, enhanced cellular Egr-1 and viral RTA expression during early stages of primary infection (Fig. 3) is not sufficient to trigger a lytic infection [6] . These results suggest the following: (i) the role of Egr-1.RTA signaling in initiating a lytic cycle of infection during the course of initial infection of cells is limited; and (ii) there is a missing element in the Egr-1.RTA driven cellular events critical for inducing a productive replication.