Differentiation of oncogenic and nononcogenic strains of Marek's disease virus type 1 by using polymerase chain reaction DNA amplification.

Differentiation of oncogenic and nononcogenic strains of Marek's disease virus type 1 (MDV1) was attempted by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the primers chosen from the sequence within the long inverted repeats of MDV1 DNA. PCR of the DNAs extracted from oncogenic-strain-infected cells and Marek's disease tumor cell lines produced a major product containing two or three copies of 132-base-pair (bp) repeat units, whereas PCRs of the DNAs extracted from nononcogenic-strain-infected cells yielded amplified products with various sizes corresponding to the number of 132-bp repeat units. The primers chosen from the glycoprotein A genes of MDV1 and herpesvirus of turkeys also were used for determination of their serotype specificity. The PCR procedure was found to be a simple and sensitive procedure for identification of MDV1 and herpesvirus of turkeys and for estimation of oncogenicity of MDV1.