Ovine herpesvirus 1 (OVHV-1) thymidine kinase locus sequence analysis: Evidence that OVHV-1 belongs to the Macavirus genus of the Gammaherpesvirinae subfamily

Abstract

The Hindlll-HincU fragment of the 5.5 kbp H11 HiWIII clone of ovine herpesvirus 1 (OvHV-1) was cloned and its primary structure was determined by preparation of nested deletion subclones and their sequencing. Sequence analysis of the overlapping clones revealed that 3239 bp OvHV-1 fragment contains complete thymidine kinase (TK) gene, a partial open reading frame of ORF20 and that encoding glycoprotein H (gH). The conserved OvHV-1 TK displayed the highest similarity to homologous TK proteins encoded by members of the Macavirus genus of the Gammaherpesvirinae subfamily. These data including our previous analysis of the partial sequence of VP23 homologue might serve as further evidence that OvHV-1 should be categorized within the genus Macavirus of the Herpesviridae family.