Processing of herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoproteins: two-dimensional gel analysis using monoclonal antibodies.

The number of discrete species of glycoprotein induced by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1, strain 17 syn+) and their processing has been examined by a combination of immunoprecipitation with monoclonal antibodies and analysis of immune precipitates by two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis. Seventeen different monoclonal antibodies directed against glycoproteins A/B, C, D and E were used. Polypeptides intermediate in the synthesis of gA/B, C and D were visualized and two early intermediates of glycoprotein A/B (pgA/B1 and pgA/B2), both mannose-containing, were identified. Comparison on 2D gels of polypeptides synthesized in vitro from HSV-1-infected cell mRNA with those synthesized in pulse-chase experiments in vivo has allowed identification of early precursors of pgA/B and pgD. Their apparent mol. wt. were 105000 and 47000 respectively. The 2D gel analysis of glycoproteins induced in HFL cells infected with 17 syn+ revealed a number of previously unreported glycoprotein species. One had mobility on both gradient and single concentration SDS-polyacrylamide gels similar to that of gC but was resolved from gC on non-equilibrium pH gradient gels. This glycoprotein was produced in relatively large amounts and was not precipitated by any of the monoclonal antibodies used in this study. The data suggest that this glycoprotein either has a polypeptide chain unrelated to those of glycoproteins A/B, C, D or E or alternatively is derived from one of them and modified in such a way as to mask or remove the antigenic sites with which the monoclonal antibodies interact. Sixteen other previously unreported glycoprotein species not obviously related, as judged by their electrophoretic mobility, to gA/B, C, D or E were also identified: two reacted with gA/B-specific monoclonal antibodies and five with glycoprotein C-specific monoclonal antibodies. The origin of the remaining nine new glycoproteins has still to be ascertained.