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Journal of Virology, September 1998, p. 7115-7124, Vol. 72, No. 9
Department of Molecular Genetics and
Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261
Received 17 March 1998/Accepted 4 June 1998
ICP4 of herpes simplex virus (HSV) is essential for productive
infection due to its central role in the regulation of HSV transcription. This study identified a region of ICP4 that is not
required for viral growth in culture or at the periphery of experimentally inoculated mice but is critical for productive growth in
the trigeminal ganglia. This region of ICP4 encompasses amino
acids 184 to 198 and contains 13 nearly contiguous serine residues that
are highly conserved among the alphaherpesviruses. A mutant in which
this region is deleted (
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The Polyserine Tract of Herpes Simplex Virus ICP4 Is Required
for Normal Viral Gene Expression and Growth in Murine
Trigeminal Ganglia
SER) was able to grow on the corneas of mice
and be transported back to the trigeminal ganglia.
SER did not grow
in the trigeminal ganglia but did express low levels of several
immediate-early (ICP4 and ICP27) and early (thymidine kinase
[tk] and UL42) genes. It expressed very low levels of the
late gC gene and did not appear to replicate DNA. This pattern of gene
expression was similar to that observed for a tk mutant,
dlsptk. Both
SER and dlsptk expressed higher
levels of the latency-associated transcript (LAT) per genome earlier in
infected ganglia than did the wild-type virus, KOS. However, infected
ganglia from all three viruses accumulated the same level of LAT
per genome at 30 days postinfection (during latency). The data suggest
that the polyserine tract of ICP4 provides an activity that is required
for lytic infection in ganglia to progress to viral DNA synthesis and
full lytic gene expression. In the absence of this activity, higher
levels of LAT per genome accumulate earlier in infection than with
wild-type virus.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: E1257 Biomedical
Science Tower, Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Phone: (412) 648-9947. Fax: (412) 624-1401. E-mail:
neal{at}hoffman.mgen.pitt.edu.
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