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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Endemic Poultry Viral Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #306716
Title: Identification and characterization of the genomic termini and cleavage/packaging signals of gallid herpesvirus 2

Author
item Spatz, Stephen
item VOLKENING, JEREMY - Former ARS Employee

Submitted to: International Marek's Disease Symposium Abstracts and Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2012
Publication Date: 6/24/2012
Citation: Spatz, S.J., Volkening, J. 2012. Identification and characterization of the genomic termini and cleavage/packaging signals of gallid herpesvirus 2. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Marek's Disease and Avian Herpesviruses, June 24-28, 2012, Berlin, Germany. p.27.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Herpesvirus replication within host cells produces concatameric genomic DNA which is cleaved into unit-length genomes and packaged into the capsid by a complex of proteins. The sites of cleavage have been identified for many herpesviruses and conserved signaling sequences involved in cleavage and packaging have been characterized. We have identified the specific cleavage site of the avidly cell-associated gallid herpesvirus 2 (GaHV-2) strain CU-2 and located the conserved cleavage/packaging motifs pac-1 and pac-2 by comparative analysis. In the process we have been able to delineate the unit-length a sequence and show that it varies in copy number at the termini of the packaged genome. The results are consistent with previous findings in other cell-free and cell-associated alphaherpesviruses and should prove useful in packaging studies involving amplicons.