Identification of a subset of herpesvirus saimiri polypeptides synthesized in the absence of virus DNA replication.

The effects of phosphonoacetic acid on the synthesis of herpesvirus saimiri-specific polypeptides in productively infected cells were examined. At concentrations that inhibited virus DNA synthesis (greater than or equal to 150 micrograms/ml), phosphonoacetic acid prevented the synthesis of the majority of virus-specific polypeptides while allowing the synthesis of a subset of virus proteins (i.e., 110,000 [110K], 76K, 72K, 51K, 48K, 29K, 24K, and 20K or 21K) and the protracted synthesis of host-specified polypeptides. Other inhibitors of DNA synthesis (e.g., cytosine arabinoside) showed the same selective inhibition of late virus protein synthesis and identified the same resistant subset of early virus-specific polypeptides. This DNA synthesis-independent subset included the 51K phosphoprotein, which, together with the 110K, 48K, and 31K polypeptides, accumulated in the nuclear fraction of infected cells.