title: The role of equine herpesvirus type 4 glycoprotein k in virus replication.
abstract: Equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV-4) is an important equine pathogen that causes respiratory tract disease among horses worldwide. Glycoprotein K (gK) homologues have been identified in several alphaherpesviruses as a major player in virus entry, replication, and spread. In the present study, EHV-4 gK-deletion mutant has been generated by using bacterial artificial chromosome technology and Red mutagenesis to investigate the role of gK in EHV-4 replication. Our findings reported here show that gK is essential for virus replication in vitro and that the gK-negative strain was not able to be reconstituted in equine cells. It is noteworthy that these findings agree with the previously published study describing gK deletion in other alphaherpesviruses.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Free University of Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, Haus 18, 10115 Berlin, Germany. wfazab@zedat.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Walid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Azab
authors.forename: Abuelyazeed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Sheikh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D023141:Herpesvirus 4, Equid / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D006736:Horses; D006801:Humans; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D014764:Viral Proteins