Sequence determination and genetic content of an 8.9-kb restriction fragment in the short unique region and the internal inverted repeat of Marek's disease virus type 1 DNA

Abstract

The DNA sequence (8.9 kb) covering about 70% of the short unique region (Us) and part of the short inverted repeat of the Marek's disease virus type 1 GA strain was determined. Computer analysis of the sequence showed the presence of nine potential open reading frames (ORFs), consisting of more than 300 nucleotides in the Us region. Of these ORFs, four were found to be homologous to US10 (minor virion protein), US3 (protein kinase), US2, and US6 (gD) in the Us region of alpha-herpesvirus herpes simplex virus type 1. The protein kinase homologue is especially well conserved in alpha-herpesviruses. No counterpart of the nine MDV1 ORFs was found in the beta-herpes virus human cytomegalovirus and gamma-herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus, suggesting that MDV1 is more similar to the alpha-herpesviruses. The junction of the Us region and the short inverted repeat was also determined by comparison between the sequences of the DNA fragments, including the terminal and internal repeats. Northern blot analysis showed that the Us region within the 8.9 kb sequence was transcriptionally active in MDV1-infected cells.

Development of an Effective Polyvalent Vaccine against both Marek's and Newcastle Diseases Based on Recombinant Marek's Disease Virus Type 1 in Commercial Chickens with Maternal Antibodies

“…The US10 ORF probe hybridized to three transcripts of 2.5, 1.7, and 0.9 kb in RNA extracted from cells infected with CVI988. Consistent with our previous report (48), the probe did not detect any transcripts in cells infected with rMDV1-US10P(F), indicating that no US10 gene product is expressed in cells infected with the virus. The NDV-F cDNA probe hybridized to four transcripts of 4.2, 3.4, 2.6, and 2.1 kb in RNAs extracted from cells infected with rMDV1-US10P(F), but not from cells infected with CVI988.…”

Characterization of proteins encoded by the short unique region of herpesvirus of turkeys byin vitroexpression

“…HVT and MDV have genome structures similar to those ofalphaherpesviruses (Cebrian et al, 1982;Fukuchi et al, 1984;Igarashi et al, 1987) and have numerous genes that are homologous to and collinear with those of varicella-zoster virus and herpes simplex virus (HSV) (Buckmaster et al, 1988). Sequencing studies Sakaguchi et al, 1992) have indicated that MDV U s encodes proteins homologous to HSV US1, US2, protein kinase (PK), US10 and glycoproteins gD, gI and gE but that three proteins (SORF1, SORF2 and SORF3) have no counterparts in HSV or any other mammalian herpesvirus. Using rabbit antisera directed against fusion proteins expressed in Eseheriehia coli, characterized MDV USI, US10, US2, PK and glycoproteins gI and gE in extracts of infected duck embryo fibroblasts (DEF) by radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) but were unable to identify MDV gD.…”

The complete sequence and gene organization of the short unique region of herpesvirus of turkeys

“…sequenced a 5-5kbp EcoRI fragment mapping in the short unique segment (Us) of MDV and identified herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) homotogues of US2, protein kinase (PK), glycoprotein D (gD) and glycoprotein I (gI), and one short open reading frame (ORF4) which showed some similarity to HSV-1 glycoprotein G (gG). More recently, Brunovskis & Velicer (1992), Velicer et al (1992) and Sakaguchi et al (1992) reported the nucleotide sequence of MDV U s and characterized a number of Us-encoded polypeptides. The 11 160 bp long MDV U s DNA was found to contain at least 11 ORFs; seven of these were found to be exclusively homologous to alphaherpesvirus U s genes [US1, US10, US2, PK (US3), gD, gI and glycoprotein E (gE) homologues of HSV-1], one ORF was reported to be homologous to fowlpox virus ORF4 described by Tomley et al (1988), and three ORFs had no apparent 0001-1608 © 1993 SGM relationship to any sequences in protein databases and were considered to be MDV-specific.…”