title: Nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences of the Marek's disease virus and turkey herpesvirus thymidine kinase genes; comparison with thymidine kinase genes of other herpesviruses.
abstract: In this paper we present the nucleotide sequences of the thymidine kinase (TK) genes of two avian herpesviruses: a highly oncogenic strain of Marek's disease virus (MDV strain RB1B) and its serologically related vaccine virus, the herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT strain Fc-126). The predicted coding regions of the two genes are 1029 and 1050 nucleotides respectively, corresponding to polypeptides of 343 and 350 amino acids in length. Putative nucleotide- and nucleoside-binding sites have been identified within the two predicted amino acid sequences. The MDV and HVT TK amino acid sequences exhibit 58.2% amino acid identity. Comparison with other available herpesvirus TK sequences reveals a greater homology to those of the alphaherpesviruses than to those of the gammaherpesviruses. No overall homology was found when compared with the chicken cytoplasmic TK sequence.
authors.affiliation: AFRC Institute for Animal Health, Houghton Laboratory, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, U.K.
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Binns
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000235:genetics*; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins; D013937:Thymidine Kinase