title: Varicella-zoster virus ORF 58 gene is dispensable for viral replication in cell culture.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Open reading frame 58 (ORF58) of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) lies at the 3'end of the Unique long (UL) region and its functional is unknown. In order to clarify whether ORF58 is essential for the growth of VZV, we constructed a deletion mutant of ORF58 (pOka-BACDelta58) from the Oka parental genome cloned into a bacterial artificial chromosome (pOka-BAC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ORF58-deleted virus (rpOkaDelta58) was reconstituted from the pOka-BACDelta58 genome in MRC-5 cells, indicating that the ORF58 gene is non-essential for virus growth. Comparison of the growth rate of rpOkaDelta58 and recombinant wild-type virus by assessing plaque sizes revealed no significant differences between them both in MRC-5 cells and malignant melanoma cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows that the ORF58 gene is dispensable for viral replication and does not affect the virus' ability to form plaques in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology and Vaccinology, Division of Biomedical Research, National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Osaka, Japan. hyoshii@mail.biken.or.jp
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshii
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sadaoka
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsuura
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagaike
authors.forename: Michiaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamanishi
authors.forename: Yasuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; D014645:Herpesvirus 3, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins