Degradation of cellular mRNA during infection by herpes simplex virus

The fate of preexisting mRNA sequences was examined after infection by herpes simplex virus. Murine erythroid cells transformed by Friend leukemia virus were used as the host. Such cells, when exposed to 2% dimethyl sulfoxide, produce large amounts of globin and globin mRNA. The protein and its mRNA are easily recognized at 4 days by electrophoresis in high percentage acrylamide gels and by hybridization to cDNA, respectively. Herpes simplex virus replicates in these cells. By 2 hr after infection the rate of protein synthesis decreases to 30% of the level in mock-infected cells and only 49+/-8% (SEM) of the globin mRNA sequences present prior to infection could be detected by hybridization to cDNA. At 4 hr after infection, when the rate of protein synthesis in infected cells is at a maximum, only about 15% of the globin mRNA sequences remained. Control experiments support the hypothesis that globin mRNA sequences are degraded after infection by herpes simplex virus.