Deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate pools in cells infected with deoxypyrimidine kinaseless herpes simplex virus.

Deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate pools were analysed after infection of cells with mutant herpes simplex virus which lacks the ability to induce the enzyme deoxypyrimidine kinase. After infection of exponentially growing BHK C13 cells, an increase in all four dNTP pools was observed. However, after infection of cells which themselves cannot incorporate exogenous pyrimidine deoxynucleosides only the purine deoxynucleoside triphosphate pools increased in size. In a system which is non-permissive for virus infection, i.e. resting BHK C13 cells which have been infected with dPyK-, HSV-1, there is an increase in all dNTP pool sizes except for dTTP. A comparison of the changes in dNTP pool sizes after infection with either wild type of dPyK- mutant HSV suggests an important role for dTTP in the control of both the production of the other DNA precursors and of viral DNA synthesis.