A novel approach to study the DNA of herpes zoster virus.

Herpes zoster virus DNA was isolated from infected human embryo lung cells because it is released into the "Hirt supernatant". The buoyant density of the virus DNA was found to be slightly higher than that of cellular DNA. The molecular weight of this DNA was estimated to be 92 x 10(6) daltons by cosedimentation with T4 DNA in neutral sucrose gradients. As with the DNA of other herpesviruses, the DNA of herpes zoster virus is fragmented when denatured under alkaline conditions and is therefore "alkali-labile". Studies of virus DNA using reassociation kinetics reveal that the kinetic complexity of the DNA correlates with the genome size as estimated by sucrose gradient sedimentation.