Mutant of herpes simplex virus type 2 with temperature-sensitive lesions affecting virion thermostability and DNase activity: identification of the lethal mutation and physical mapping of the nuc-lesion

Abstract

It was previously shown that a temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant of herpes simplex virus type 2 strain HG52, ts13, induced a heat-labile DNase activity in infected cells. Earlier work indicated that the mutant also possessed temperature-sensitive infectivity. In this study temperature-stable revertants of ts13 were isolated; examination of them revealed that ts13 is a double mutant, with genetically distinct temperature-sensitive lesions affecting nuclease activity and particle stability. The lethal mutation, in the cell system studied, is the latter. Revertants, which all maintain the nuclease lesion, grew well at a high temperature. Physical mapping of the nuclease lesion placed it between 0.12-0.21 (fractional length) on the virus genome, quite distant from the lethal mutation at 0.64-0.70.