Map location of the thymidine kinase gene of bovine herpesvirus 1.

Bovine herpesvirus 1 has been reported to contain a thymidine kinase (tk) gene which is nonessential for virus replication. We have isolated a thymidine kinase-negative mutant of the virus and localized the mutation by marker rescue experiments to a 1.1-kilobase BglII-SalI fragment which maps at 0.47 to 0.48 on the bovine herpesvirus 1 genomic map. A thymidine kinase-negative bovine cell line isolated in our laboratory was used in these studies.