IDENTIFICATION AND NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE THYMIDINE KINASE GENE OF CANINE HERPESVIRUS

This paper presents the entire nucleotide sequence of the thymidine Ki nase (TK) gene of canine herpesvirus (CHV). The gene was located withi n a 2.1 kbp EcoRV fragment by Southern-blot hybridization with a probe derived from the known feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1) TK gene. An open reading frame (ORF) of 987 nucleotides, capable of encoding a TK translation product of 328 amino acids, was identified. Alignment of t he predicted amino acid sequence of the CHV TK with other herpesvirus TKs revealed homologies of 25-47%. The proposed nucleotide-binding sit e and thymidine-binding site sequences of known herpesvirus TKs could be aligned with similar sequences in CHV TK. Northern-blot analysis re vealed 1.3 kb and 5.0 kb mRNAs as the TK-specific transcripts. It is p robable that the 1.3 kb transcript codes for the CHV TK and that the 5 .0 kb transcript codes for the CHV TK and the downstream sequence.