Comparison of polymorphism of thymidine kinase gene and restriction fragment length polymorphism of genomic DNA in herpes simplex virus type 1

The polymorphism of the thymidine kinase (TK) gene of herpes simpler; virus type 1 (HSV-1) was analyzed and was compared with the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the whole genome to evaluate the relative ef ficiency of the TK gene as a potential probe for identification and discrim ination of HSV-1. The effectiveness of using the polymorphism of the TK gen e in classifying HSV-1 strains was comparable to that of RFLP analysis of 6 6 sites, suggesting that TK gene sequencing may have important applications in epidemiological studies of HSV-1.