Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Gade Institute, University of Bergen, Norway.
ABSTRACT
Entry of herpes simplex virus (HSV) into cells is believed to be mediated by specific binding of envelope proteins to a cellular receptor. Neomycin specifically blocks this initial step in infection by HSV-1 but not HSV-2. Resistance of HSV-2 to this compound maps to a region of the genome encoding glycoprotein C (gC-2). We have studied the function of gC-2 in the initial interaction of the virus with the host cell, using HSV-2 mutants deleted for gC-2 and gC-2-rescued recombinants. Resistance to neomycin was directly linked to the presence of gC-2 within the viral genome. In addition, deletion of the gC-2 gene caused a marked delay in adsorption to cells relative to the wild-type virus. HSV-1 recombinants containing chimeric gC genes composed of HSV-1 and HSV-2 sequences were used to localize neomycin resistance within the N-terminal 223 amino acids of gC-2. This region of the glycoprotein comprises an important domain responsible for binding of HSV-2 to cell receptors in the presence of neomycin. A gC-2-negative mutant is still infectious, indicating that HSV-2 also has an alternative pathway of adsorption.
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