Deletion and Duplication Variants around the Long Repeats of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Strain 17

Abstract

Three variants of herpes simplex virus type 1 strain 17 were isolated. One variant had a deletion of 2.5 .times. 106 Mr in IRL/UL and 0.8 .times. 106 Mr in TRL such that sequences were deleted from both long repeats. The deletion in UL removed the 20K and 22K open reading frames. The second variant had a deletion of 3.5 .times. 106 Mr in IRL/UL which again removed the 20K and 22K open reading frames. The third variant had a similar deletion in UL, but in this case the deleted sequences were replaced by sequences from the left end of UL, such that the long repeat was extended by 3 .times. 106 Mr and the overall genome size by 2 .times. 106 Mr. All three variants grew almost normally in vitro. The analysis of 11 isolates with extensive variation in the long repeats outside the ''a'' sequence is also reported.