Evidence of a Protein-Coding Gene Antisense to the UL5 Gene in Bovine Herpesvirus I

Viruses. 2023 Sep 22;15(10):1977. doi: 10.3390/v15101977.

Abstract

Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BoHV-1) is an important agricultural pathogen that infects cattle and other ruminants worldwide. Though it was first sequenced and annotated over twenty years ago, the Cooper strain, used in this study, was sequenced as recently as 2012 and is currently said to encode 72 unique proteins. However, tandem mass spectrometry has identified several peptides produced during active infection that align with the BoHV-1 genome in unannotated regions. One of these abundant peptides, "ORF M", aligned antisense to the DNA helicase/primase protein UL5. This study characterizes the novel transcript and its protein product and provides evidence to support the existence of homolog protein-coding genes in other Herpesviruses.

Keywords: bovine herpesvirus; homolog; novel protein; transcript.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Cattle
  • DNA Primase / genetics
  • Herpesviridae Infections*
  • Herpesvirus 1, Bovine* / genetics
  • Herpesvirus 1, Bovine* / metabolism
  • Peptides / genetics
  • Simplexvirus / genetics

Substances

  • DNA Primase
  • Peptides

Grants and funding

This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2020-67016-31345 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to F.M.; H.B. was supported by the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program made available by the College of Ag and Life Sciences and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.