title: Alphaherpesvirus Latency: A Dynamic State of Transcription and Reactivation.
abstract: Alphaherpesviruses infect a variety of species from sea turtles to man and can cause significant disease in mammals including humans and livestock. These viruses are characterized by a lytic and latent state in nerve ganglia, with the ability to establish a lifelong latent infection that is interrupted by periodic reactivation. Previously, it was accepted that latency was a dominant state and that only during relatively infrequent reactivation episodes did latent genomes within ganglia become transcriptionally active. Here, we review recent data, focusing mainly on Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 which indicate that the latent state is more dynamic than recently appreciated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Electronic address: dbloom@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Bloom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005724:Ganglia / Q000821:virology; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014775:Virus Activation; D017735:Virus Latency
keywords: Latency; Noncoding RNAs; Persistence; Reactivation