Journal
VIROLOGY
Volume 330, Issue 1, Pages 209-220Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2004.09.020
Keywords
gene; amino acid; herpes simplex virus
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [AI41644] Funding Source: Medline
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In an effort to understand the organization of genes in the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) genome, I tested the idea that the location of a gene may be related to the evolutionary rate of amino acid sequence variation in the encoded protein. A measure of protein sequence divergence was calculated for homologous proteins in the U-L region of six alphaherpesviruses including HSV-1, and this parameter was plotted against position in the HSV-1 genome. The results revealed a cluster of highly conserved proteins (U(L)27-U(L)33) encoded near the middle Of UL. A similar analysis was restricted to HSV-1 and HSV-2 permitting an examination of Us proteins and proteins encoded in repeated regions at the segment ends. This analysis showed that Us proteins as a group are more highly divergent than those encoded in U-L. A high degree of divergence was also observed in proteins coded at the segment ends including R(L)1 (gamma(1) 34.5), R(L)2 (alpha0), U(L)1 (glycoprotein L), U(L)56, U(S)1, and U-S 12. It is suggested that conserved proteins U(L)27-U(L)33 are encoded near the middle Of U-L to take advantage of a low local mutation rate. Highly divergent proteins are suggested to be encoded selectively in U-S because of a comparatively rapid evolutionary rate with which genes can be introduced and removed from S in response to environmental variation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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