Disease relevance of UL41

• The virion host shutoff protein (UL41) of herpes simplex virus 1 is an endoribonuclease with a substrate specificity similar to that of RNase A [1].
• However, there was no significant difference between levels of the UL41 gene product in wild-type and mutant virions [2].
• To date, UL41 homologs have been identified in the genomes of three other alphaherpesviruses: equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), varicella-zoster virus, and pseudorabies virus, but very little is known about the putative products of these homologous genes [3].
• In cells infected with mutant viruses of both HSV-2 strain G and HSV-1 strain 17 that lack the UL41 gene, class I HLA molecules failed to become sialated, suggesting that they were not transported to the Golgi apparatus [4].
• The results pinpoint several type-specific amino acids that are largely responsible for the greater activity of the UL41 polypeptide of HSV-2 [5].

High impact information on UL41

• The herpes simplex virus 1 UL41 gene-dependent destabilization of cellular RNAs is selective and may be sequence-specific [6].
• We generated two insertional beta-galactosidase (lacZ) expressing herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) with putative mutations in the UL41 or US5 open reading frames [7].
• The virion host shutoff (vhs) gene (UL41) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) encodes a virion component that induces degradation of host mRNAs and the shutoff of most host protein synthesis [8].
• The results identify multiple forms of the vhs (UL41) polypeptide and suggest that posttranslational processing affects its packaging into virions, as well as its ability to induce mRNA degradation [8].
• The role of protein kinase activity expressed by the UL13 gene of herpes simplex virus 1: the activity is not essential for optimal expression of UL41 and ICP0 [9].

Biological context of UL41

• The UL41 gene product (vhs) of herpes simplex virus (HSV) is packaged in the virion, and mediates host protein synthesis shutoff at the early stage of the virus replication cycle [10].
• In order to clarify the role of vhs in virus replication and virulence, we isolated a completely UL41-deficient mutant (the VRDelta41 strain) and its revertant (the VRDelta41R strain) [10].
• The nucleotide sequence data of the UL41 gene of HSZP and KOS have been submitted to the Genbank nucleotide database and have been assigned the accession numbers Z72337 and Z72338 [11].

Enzymatic interactions of UL41

• However, the UL41 gene product could still be phosphorylated in lysates of UL13-negative virions [2].

Other interactions of UL41

• Cells infected with the UL13-negative mutants were shown to contain much lower levels than normal of the UL41 gene product, which is known to be required for virion host shutoff [2].
• The MDV2 ORFs were arranged collinearly with the prototype sequence of herpes simplex virus type 1 ranging from the UL41 to UL51 genes [12].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of UL41

• These results indicate that the protein kinase activity of UL13 plays a role in viral replication in cell culture, but the activity is not essential for the optimal expression of UL41 and ICP0 [9].
• Site-directed mutagenesis of the virion host shutoff gene (UL41) of herpes simplex virus (HSV): analysis of functional differences between HSV type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 alleles [5].

References