Immediate early and early polypeptides in herpesvirus latency

A serum reacting with the immediate early polypeptides (175K, 136K, 110K, 87K, 63K), with at least three early (beta) polypeptides (146K, 44K, 32K) and with the capsid polypeptide 155K of herpes simplex virus (HSV(, was used to stain sections from trigeminal ganglia of rabbits with established latent HSV infection. Alternating sections were stained with a serum to partially purified HSV particles. The results of the anticomplementary immunofluorescence by the first serum were compared with the results of the indirect immunofluorescence staining by the second serum in serial sections from both noncultured and cultured halves of the same ganglion. Nonstructural polypeptides were detected in ganglion cells before culturing only in 1 out of 12 rabbits. A good correlation was found between the occurrence of nonstructural and structural antigens in the explanted fragments starting from 72 hr in culture. The findings were consistent with the hypothesis of static latency provided that spontaneous activation of the silent genome would occasionally occur in a few ganglion cells.