Fine mapping and characterization of the Syn 6 locus in the herpes simplex virus type 1 genome

The syncytial mutant of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), HSV-1(13) S11, which carries three distinct syncytial mutations, Syn 1, Syn 5 and Syn 6, was described previously. Syn 1 maps to the BamHI L fragment, map units (m.u.) 0.707 to 0.745; Syn 5 is located within the BamHI Q fragment, m.u. 0.296 to 0.317; Syn 6 lies in the junction fragment BamHI SP, m.u. 0.81 to 0.85. Although Syn 1 of HSV-1(13) S11 seems to be homologous to that of HSV-1(MP) and other syncytial mutants, and Syn 5 has been recently characterized, Syn 6 represents a novel syncytial locus which has yet to be characterized. In this paper we report the fine mapping of the Syn 6 locus. This mutation has been mapped, by marker rescue and marker transfer experiments, to the long repeat regions (RL) at both ends of the L component of the HSV genome in a restriction endonuclease fragment of approximately 1.6 kb designated BamHI-SacI C (approximate m.u. 0.01 to 0.02 and 0.81 to 0.82). In the internal copy of RL the sequences containing the Syn 6 mutation were bounded to the left by the 5' end of the alpha gene specifying ICP0 and to the right by the gamma 1 gene encoding ICP34.5.