Purified DNAs from Marek's disease virus (MDV) and the herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) were randomly sheared and cloned into the M13 bacteriophage. Two-hundred and ten MDV and 130 HVT clones were sequenced to give representative samples of the genome sequences. The predicted amino acid sequences from these gammaherpes-viruses were compared to known sequences from other herpesviruses using computer...

neurotropic alphaherpesvirus that invokes cellularmediated immunity in patients who develop the primary infection varicella (chickenpox). The virus remains dormant in the cranial nerve ganglia, dorsal root ganglia and autonomic ganglia along the neuraxis for years after the initial infection. Reactivation of latent VZV in such infected neural ganglia produces dematomal skin lesions called herpe...

The herpesvirus ubiquitin-specific protease (USP) family, whose founding member was discovered as a protease domain embedded in the large tegument protein of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), is conserved across all members of the Herpesviridae. Whether this conservation is indicative of an essential function of the enzyme in vivo has not yet been established. As reported here, USP activity is co...