title: Analysis of the genome of leporid herpesvirus 4.
abstract: The genome of a herpesvirus highly pathogenic to rabbits, leporid herpesvirus 4 (LHV-4), was analyzed using high-throughput DNA sequencing technology and primer walking. The assembled DNA sequences were further verified by restriction endonuclease digestion and Southern blot analyses. The total length of the LHV-4 genome was determined to be about 124 kb. Genes encoded in the LHV-4 genome are most closely related to herpesvirus of the Simplexvirus genus, including human herpesviruses (HHV-1 and HHV-2), monkey herpesviruses including cercopithicine (CeHV-2 and CeHV-16), macacine (McHV-1), bovine herpesvirus 2 (BHV-2), and a lineage of wallaby (macropodid) herpesviruses (MaHV-1 and -2). Similar to other simplexvirus genomes, LHV-4 has a high overall G+C content of 65-70% in the unique regions and 75-77% in the inverted repeat regions. Orthologs of ICP34.5 and US5 were not identified in the LHV-4 genome. This study shows that LHV-4 has the smallest simplexvirus genome characterized to date.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Bobby
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Babra
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Brendan M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Jeffrey
authors.forename: Jia-Rong
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Daniel D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Rockey
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Rohrmann
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D059646:Genome Size; D016679:Genome, Viral; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D055029:Inverted Repeat Sequences; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D011817:Rabbits; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000235:genetics*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins