title: Inverted repeat regions of Marek's disease virus DNA possess a structure similar to that of the a sequence of herpes simplex virus DNA and contain host cell telomere sequences.
abstract: The genomic structure of Marek's disease virus (MDV) is similar to those of the alphaherpesviruses herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2. Sequence analysis of the junction region between the long component (L) and the short component (S) revealed the existence of an a-like sequence, similar in structure to the a sequence of HSV-1. Further study revealed that the MDV genome contains five copies of the a-like sequence within the long terminal repeat region as well as in the short terminal repeat region. The junction between the L and S components was found to contain 10 copies of the a-like sequence. Within the a-like sequence, a structure homologous to the DR2 of HSV was found to contain 17 copies of the telomeric sequence, GGGGTTA. There appears to be little to no sequence homology between the HSV a sequence and the MDV a-like sequence; however, the strong physical homology to its counterpart in HSV-1 suggests that the MDV a-like sequence may have the same functional homology (the domain for cleavage/packaging of the DNA into the viral capsids and for genomic inversion) as well.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Tampa Bay Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jessip
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nonoyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry*; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral