Herpes simplex virus 1 gamma(1)34.5 gene function, which blocks the host response to infection, maps in the homologous domain of the genes expressed during growth arrest and DNA damage.

The gamma(1)34.5 gene of herpes simplex virus is dispensable in some cell lines (e.g., Vero). In others (e.g., human neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-SH), the gamma(1)34.5- deletion mutant triggers a premature total shutoff of all protein synthesis, thereby rendering the cell nonviable and reducing drastically viral yields. The inability to prevent the cellular stress response that causes the infected cell to die may be responsible for the inability of the deletion mutant to multiply and cause pathology in the central nervous system of mice. The gamma(1)34.5 gene consists of an amino-terminal domain, a variable linker sequence consisting of 3 amino acids repeated 5-10 times, and a carboxyl-terminal domain homologous to the corresponding domain of MyD116, a gene expressed in myeloid leukemia cells induced to differentiate by interleukin 6, and growth arrest and DNA damage gene 34 (GADD34), a gene induced by growth arrest and DNA damage. We have constructed several viral mutants from which various domains of the gamma(1)34.5 gene had been deleted or rendered mute by the insertion of a stop codon. Studies on those mutants show that the domain of the gamma(1)34.5 gene necessary to preclude the total shutoff of protein synthesis corresponds to the carboxyl-terminal domain of the gamma(1)34.5 gene homologous to the corresponding coding domain of the MyD116 and GADD34 genes.