Selectable recombinant herpesvirus saimiri is capable of persisting in a human T-cell line.

Strategies were developed to insert the neo resistance marker into the junction between L DNA and the right terminal repetitive H DNA of herpesvirus saimiri. Recombinant viruses were selectable in permissive epithelioid cultures. The human T-cell line Jurkat could be infected persistently with the Neor virus; the cells contained episomal viral DNA in high copy number. This selectable vector should be generally applicable for gene expression in human T cells.