Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of DNA from the region of the thymidine kinase gene of infectious laryngotracheitis virus; potential evolutionary relationships between the herpesvirus subfamilies.

We have sequenced a 5.4 kb region of the genome from the avian herpesvirus infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) and identified genes homologous to the thymidine kinase (TK) gene, the capsid p40 gene of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), a gene encoding a protein antigenic in Epstein-Barr virus infections plus one other highly conserved gene encoding a protein implicated in cell fusion in HSV-1. Computer analysis of the TK gene and the upstream overlapping gene sequence is used to produce trees showing potential evolutionary relationships between the herpesvirus subfamilies.