Characterization of the subcellular localization of herpes simplex virus type 1 proteins in living cells

In this study, we presented the construction of a library of expression clones for the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) proteome and subcellular localization map of HSV-1 proteins in living cells using yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fusion proteins. As a result, 21 proteins showed cytoplasmic or subcytoplasmic localization, 16 proteins showed nuclear or subnuclear localization, and others were present both in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Interestingly, most capsid proteins showed enriched or exclusive localization in the nucleus, and most of the envelope proteins showed cytoplasmic localization, suggesting that subcellular localization of the proteins correlated with their functions during virus replication. These results present a subcellular localization map of HSV-1 proteins in living cells, which provide useful information to further characterize the functions of these proteins.