Alphaherpesvirus Latency: A Dynamic State of Transcription and Reactivation

Alphaherpesviruses infect a variety of species from sea turtles to man and can cause significant disease in mammals including humans and livestock. These viruses are characterized by a lytic and latent state in nerve ganglia, with the ability to establish a lifelong latent infection that is interrupted by periodic reactivation. Previously, it was accepted that latency was a dominant state and that only during relatively infrequent reactivation episodes did latent genomes within ganglia become transcriptionally active. Here, we review recent data, focusing mainly on Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 which indicate that the latent state is more dynamic than recently appreciated.