Identification of DNA polymerase(s) involved in the repair of viral and cellular DNA in herpes simplex virus type 2-infected cells.

When human embryonic fibroblasts (HEF) were infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), replicative viral DNA synthesis and some repair synthesis of cellular DNA were induced at the early stage of infection, but almost all DNA synthesis at the late stage of infection was derived from repair synthesis of cellular and viral DNA (Y. Nishiyama and F. Rapp, Virology 110, 466-475, 1981). In this study, we have assessed the effects of DNA polymerase inhibitors on repair DNA synthesis HSV-2-infected HEF. Both viral and cellular DNA syntheses during the late stage of infection were extremely resistant to aphidicolin and phosphonoacetic acid but partially sensitive to high concentrations of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine, while replicative viral DNA synthesis during the early stage of infection was very sensitive to all of those inhibitors. The results suggest that neither HSV-induced DNA polymerase nor cellular DNA polymerase alpha was involved in the repair synthesis of viral and cellular DNA but that cellular DNA polymerase beta was.