The genome of a very virulent Marek's disease virus.
Here we present the first complete genomic sequence, with analysis, of a very virulent strain of Marek's disease virus serotype 1 (MDV1), Md5. The genome is 177,874 bp and is predicted to encode 103 proteins. MDV1 is colinear with the prototypic alphaherpesvirus herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) within the unique long (UL) region, and it is most similar at the amino acid level to MDV2, herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT), and nonavian herpesviruses equine herpesviruses 1 and 4. MDV1 encodes 55 HSV-1 UL homologues together with 6 additional UL proteins that are absent in nonavian herpesviruses. The unique short (US) region is colinear with and has greater than 99% nucleotide identity to that of MDV1 strain GA; however, an extra nucleotide sequence at the Md5 US/short terminal repeat boundary results in a shorter US region and the presence of a second gene (encoding MDV097) similar to the SORF2 gene. MD5, like HVT, encodes an ICP4 homologue that contains a 900-amino-acid amino-terminal extension not found in other herpesviruses. Putative virulence and host range gene products include the oncoprotein MEQ, oncogenicity-associated phosphoproteins pp38 and pp24, a lipase homologue, a CxC chemokine, and unique proteins of unknown function MDV087 and MDV097 (SORF2 homologues) and MDV093 (SORF4). Consistent with its virulent phenotype, Md5 contains only two copies of the 132-bp repeat which has previously been associated with viral attenuation and loss of oncogenicity.
Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Greenport, New York 11944, USA.
E R
ER
Tulman
C L
CL
Afonso
Z
Z
Lu
L
L
Zsak
D L
DL
Rock
G F
GF
Kutish
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002645:Chickens; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D008380:Marek Disease / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
D004279:DNA, Viral