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Isolation and characterization of a chimpanzee alphaherpesvirus

¹ Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
² Animal Health Diagnostic Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
³ Division of Comparative Medicine, Center for Frontier Life Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

Correspondence
Richard Eberle
reberle{at}okstate.edu

Although both beta- and gammaherpesviruses indigenous to great-ape species have been isolated, to date all alphaherpesviruses isolated from apes have proven to be human viruses [herpes simplex virus types 1 (HSV1) and 2 (HSV2) or varicella-zoster virus]. If the alphaherpesviruses have co-evolved with their host species, some if not all ape species should harbour their own alphaherpesviruses. Here, the isolation and characterization of an alphaherpesvirus from a chimpanzee (ChHV) are described. Sequencing of a number of genes throughout the ChHV genome indicates that it is collinear with that of HSV. Phylogenetic analyses place ChHV in a clade with HSV1 and HSV2, the alphaherpesviruses of Old World monkeys comprising a separate clade. Analysis of reactivity patterns of HSV2-immune human sera and ChHV-immune chimpanzee sera by competition ELISA support this relationship. Phylogenetic analyses also place ChHV rather than HSV1 as the closest relative of HSV2.

Published online ahead of print on 28 October 2005 as DOI 10.1099/vir.0.81606-0.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the ChHV sequences reported in this paper are: UL12–UL16 (AB218901), UL20–UL21 (AB218902), UL22–UL25 (AB218903), UL26–UL29 (AB218904), UL44–UL45 (AB218905), UL46–UL50 (AB218962), US1 (AB218906), US3–US8 (AB218907).