Cytomegalovirus t cell epitopes and uses thereof

A composition comprising:

• one or more peptides or proteins consisting of an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs.:
• 1-235 of Table 1 and SEQ ID NOs:
• 1-187 of Table 2;
• or
• a fusion protein comprising one or more amino acid sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs.:
• 1-235 of Table 1 and SEQ ID NOs:
• 1-187 of Table 2;
• or
• a pool of 2 or more or more peptides comprising amino acid sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs.:
• 1-235 of Table 1 and SEQ ID NOs:
• 1-187 of Table 2;
• or
• a polynucleotide that encodes one or more peptides or proteins, comprising, consisting of, or consisting essentially of an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs.:
• 1-235 of Table 1 and SEQ ID NOs:
• 1-187 of Table 2.

A peptide or peptides that are immunoprevalent or immunodominant in a virus prepared by a method consisting essentially of:

• obtaining an amino acid sequence of the virus;
• determining one or more sets of overlapping peptides spanning one or more virus antigen using unbiased selection;
• synthesizing one or more pools of virus peptides comprising the one or more sets of overlapping peptides;
• combining the one or more pools of virus peptides with Class I major histocompatibility proteins (MHC), Class II MHC, or both Class I and Class II MHC to form peptide-MHC complexes;
• contacting the peptide-MHC complexes with T cells from subjects exposed to the virus;
• and
• determining which pools triggered cytokine release by the T cells;
• and
• deconvoluting from the pool of peptides that elicited cytokine release by the T cells, which peptide or peptides are immunoprevalent or immunodominant in the pool.