bThe ORF75c tegument protein of murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) promotes the degradation of the antiviral promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein. Surprisingly, MHV68 expressing a degradation-deficient ORF75c replicated in cell culture and in mice similar to the wild-type virus. However, in cells infected with this mutant virus, PML formed novel track-like structures that are induced by ORF61, the viral ribonucleotide reductase large subunit. These findings may explain why ORF75c mutant viruses unable to degrade PML had no demonstrable phenotype after infection. P romyelocytic leukemia (PML) nuclear bodies (NBs) are 0.2-to 1-m nuclear organelles formed by the multimerization of PML proteins (1, 2). PML NBs regulate multiple cellular functions, including antiviral responses (1-4). Many RNA and DNA viruses, including herpesviruses from all three (alpha, beta, and gamma) subfamilies have correspondingly evolved different mechanisms to modulate PML NBs or PML NB-associated proteins (e.g., Sp100 and Daxx) during both lytic and latent infection (3-6). For example, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) ICP0 (7, 8), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) EBNA1 (9), Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) LANA2 (10), and murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68) ORF75c (11, 12) target the PML protein for degradation through a proteasome-dependent pathway. Varicella zoster virus (VZV) ORF61 (13), human cytomegalovirus (CMV) IE1 (14), EBV BZLF1 (Zta) (15), and adenovirus type 5 E4 ORF3 (16) disperse PML from nuclear bodies or distort normal PML-NB architecture. Moreover, EBV EBNA-LP (17) and herpesvirus saimiri (HVS) ORF3 (a homolog of gammaherpesvirus ORF75 proteins) (18) relocalize and/ degrade Sp100, respectively, while EBV BNRF1 (19) inactivates Daxx.Investigation of the in vivo consequences of PML-NB disruption during human herpesvirus infection is limited due to the species specificity of most human herpesviruses. Murid herpesvirus 4 (MHV68) is a useful model system for investigating strategies utilized by herpesviruses for establishing long-term chronic infections in an animal because it has a genome organization closely related to human gammaherpesviruses and, like human gammaherpesviruses, it can establish chronic infections and lymphoproliferative diseases in its natural host (20, 21).Previously, we have shown that MHV68 induces the proteasome-dependent degradation of PML via ORF75c, which is a viral tegument protein with homology to the cellular formylglycinamide ribonucleotide amidotransferase (FGARAT) protein (11,12). Surprisingly, acute infection in PML ÏȘ/ÏȘ mice progressed similarly to that in wild-type (WT) mice. However, MHV68 reactivated with greater efficiency in peritoneal cells from PML ÏȘ/ÏȘ mice compared to wild-type mice and, in addition, supported higher levels of ongoing persistent infection (22). These data indicate that PML plays a role in establishment and maintenance of latent infection in vivo. To gain more insight into the role of ORF75c and the consequences of PML-NB disruption in vivo, we generated a virus expres...