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Complete genome sequence of cercopithecine herpesvirus 2 (SA8) and comparison with other simplexviruses.

Tyler SD, Peters GA, Severini A

National Microbiology Laboratory, Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health, 1015 Arlignton Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3E 3R2.

We have obtained the complete sequence of the herpesvirus simian agent 8 (SA8; cercopithecine herpesvirus 2) a baboon simplexvirus closely related to the monkey B virus and herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2. The genome of SA8 is 150,715 bp long, with an overall G/C content of 76%, the highest among the simplexviruses sequenced so far. The sequencing has confirmed that the genomic arrangement of SA8 is similar to that of other simplexviruses: unique long and unique short regions bordered by two sets of inverted repeats. All genes identified in SA8 are homologous and collinear with those of the monkey B virus, including the lack of the RL1 open reading frame, a gene responsible for neurovirulence in human herpes simplex viruses. This latter finding supports the hypothesis that a different pathogenetic mechanism may have developed in human simplexviruses, after their divergence from monkey simplexviruses.

Published 4 January 2005 in Virology, 331(2): 429-40.
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