Earlier studies have shown that translation elongation factor 1␦ (EF-1␦) is hyperphosphorylated in various mammalian cells infected with representative alpha-, beta-, and gammaherpesviruses and that the modification is mediated by conserved viral protein kinases encoded by herpesviruses, including UL13 of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), UL97 of human cytomegalovirus, and BGLF4 of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). In the present study, we attempted to identify the site in EF-1␦ associated with the hyperphosphorylation by the herpesvirus protein kinases The family Herpesviridae can be divided into three subfamilies (the Alphaherpesvirinae, the Betaherpesvirinae, and the Gammaherpesvirinae), and to date, approximately 130 herpesviruses have been identified from various animal species (41). Despite the wide range of biological properties and pathogenic manifestations of the herpesviruses, their genomes contain a significant number of conserved genes (41). This conservation suggests that the products of these genes play essential roles in the life cycle of herpesviruses. Herpesviruses contain viral genes that are predicted to encode protein kinases (4, 44). Among them, a subset exemplified by UL13 of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is conserved in all of the Herpesviridae (4, 44). Conceivably herpesviruses universally utilize their products both to regulate their own replicative processes and to modify cellular machinery through the phosphorylation of target viral and cellular proteins.HSV-1 UL13, a subject of this study, is a serine/threonine protein kinase that is packaged into the virion (6, 34). Studies with UL13 mutants showed that the viral protein kinase affects the accumulation of an ␣ protein, ICP0, and a subset of ␥ 2 proteins, including UL26, UL26.5, UL38, UL41, and Us11 (37), suggesting that UL13 plays a role in viral gene expression in infected cells. Several lines of evidence listed below indicate that the function of UL13 is closely linked to that of the other viral regulatory proteins ICP22 and Us1.5, both of which are encoded by the ␣22 gene. First, ICP22 and Us1.5 are hypophosphorylated in cells infected with UL13 mutant viruses, suggesting that the UL13 protein kinase phosphorylates these viral regulatory proteins (38). Second, the phenotype of UL13 deletion mutants cannot be differentiated from that of ICP22 and Us1.5 deletion mutant viruses with respect to the accumulation of ICP0 and the subset of ␥ 2 proteins (37). Third, both UL13 and ICP22 and Us1.5 are involved in the HSV-1-induced activation and modification of cellular enzymes, including the protein kinase cdc2 (1) and the large subunit of RNA polymerase II (22). Although this series of observations suggests that UL13 expresses its regulatory function by phosphorylating ICP22 and Us1.5, the direct linkage between phosphorylation