Expression of herpes simplex virus glycoprotein C from a DNA fragment inserted into the thymidine kinase gene of this virus.

Previous reports have described mutants of herpes simplex virus type 1 that fail to produce or accumulate one of the major glycoproteins, glycoprotein C (gC). This defect is not lethal in cell culture, has been associated with the syncytial plaque morphology of some mutants, and may result from mutations that map to a region on the genome noncontiguous with the structural gene for gC. To investigate the conditions required for, and consequences of, gC expression in a specific genetic background, we have inserted a wild-type allele of the gC gene into the thymidine kinase gene (tk) of a gC- fusion-inducing viral mutant, strain MP. This was accomplished by identifying cloned viral DNA fragments homologous to gC mRNA, inserting the appropriate fragments into the viral tk cloned in pBR322, and then cotransfecting cells with the recombinant plasmids and DNA from strain MP, for selection of insertional TK- mutants. All TK- mutants containing insertions of appropriate sequences (in either orientation) into tk were found to express gC while maintaining the syncytial plaque morphology of strain MP. Elimination of the insertion from one of the TK- mutants was accompanied by loss of ability to produce gC. Our results permit more precise mapping of the DNA sequence encoding gC, to a subfragment of Sal I fragment R (map coordinates 0.620-0.640) and indicate also that promoter sequences for the gC gene may be located in this fragment. Moreover, we can conclude that the previously described regulatory mutation of strain MP does not prevent expression of gC from the DNA inserted into its gene tk and that the syncytial phenotype of MP cannot be due solely to absence of gC.