Identification, properties, and gene location of a novel glycoprotein specified by herpes simplex virus 1.

We report the identification of a novel herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein reactive with type specific monoclonal antibody H1379. The monoclonal antibody reacted with two broad bands with apparent mol wt of 60K to 68K and 44K to 48K formed by infected cell lysates subjected to electrophoresis in denaturing polyacrylamide gels and electrically transferred to a nitrocellulose sheet. Early in infection the H1379 reactive protein was found in the faster migrating band. The rate of accumulation was highest late in infection and only the slower migrating form incorporates significant amounts of glucosamine. The epitopic site recognized by H1379 was not uniformly distributed among strains. Analyses of HSV-1 X HSV-2 recombinants with monoclonal antibodies to HSV-1 and HSV-2 glycoproteins mapping in the S component of the HSV genomes and marker transfer experiments indicated that the gene specifying the H1379 reactive protein maps within BamHI fragment J to the left of gD most probably within the open reading frame designated as US4 (D. J. McGeoch, A Dolan, S. Donald, and F. J. Rixon, 1985, J. Mol. Biol. 181, 1-13). The gene specifying a recently discovered HSV-2 glycoprotein designated as gG-2 (B. Roizman, B. Norrild, C. Chan, and L. Pereira, 1984, Virology 133, 242-247) maps in the corresponding domain of the HSV-2 genome and marker transfer experiments suggest that the H1379 reactive protein and gG-2 are collinear. We have therefore designated the novel HSV-1 glycoprotein as gG-1.