THE NULL MUTANT OF THE U(L)31 GENE OF HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS-1 - CONSTRUCTION AND PHENOTYPE IN INFECTED-CELLS

Citation
Ye. Chang et al., THE NULL MUTANT OF THE U(L)31 GENE OF HERPES-SIMPLEX VIRUS-1 - CONSTRUCTION AND PHENOTYPE IN INFECTED-CELLS, Journal of virology, 71(11), 1997, pp. 8307-8315
Citations number
36
Categorie Soggetti
Virology
Journal title
ISSN journal
0022538X
Volume
71
Issue
11
Year of publication
1997
Pages
8307 - 8315
Database
ISI
SICI code
0022-538X(1997)71:11<8307:TNMOTU>2.0.ZU;2-W
Abstract
Earlier studies have shown that the U(L)31 protein is homogeneously di stributed throughout the nucleus and cofractionates with nuclear matri x, We report the construction from an appropriate cosmid library a del etion mutant which replicates in rabbit skin cells carrying the U(L)31 gene under a late (gamma(1)) viral promoter, The mutant virus exhibit s cytopathic effects and yields 0.01 to 0.1% of the yield of wild-type parent virus in noncomplementing cells but amounts of virus 10- to 1, 000-fold higher than those recovered from the same cells 3 h after inf ection, Electron microscopic studies indicate the presence of small nu mbers of full capsids but a lack of enveloped virions, Viral DNA extra cted from the cytoplasm of infected cells exhibits free termini indica ting cleavage/packaging of viral DNA from concatemers for packaging in to virions, but analyses of viral DNAs by pulsed-field electrophoresis indicate that at 16 h after infection, both the yields of viral DNA a nd cleavage of viral DNA for packaging are decreased, The repaired vir us cannot be differentiated from the wild-type parent. These results s uggest the possibility that U(L)31 protein forms a network to enable t he anchorage of viral products for the synthesis and/or packaging of v iral DNA into virions.