Plasmids expressing the Herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene in mammalian and bacterial cells.

Two plasmids containing either the complete thymidine kinase gene of Herpes simplex virus type I (pSK2) or the gene without the remote control sequence (pSK1) just behind the lac promoter and the first codons of the lacZ gene were constructed. Both plasmids efficiently transform mouse Ltk- cells as well as E. coli tk- cells to the Tk+ phenotype and are well suited for plasmid rescue from transformed mouse cells by direct functional selection for tk expression using a tk- mutant of E. coli C600.