ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: <i>Herpesviridae</i> 2021

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Abstract

Members of the family Herpesviridae have enveloped, spherical virions with characteristic complex structures consisting of symmetrical and non-symmetrical components. The linear, double-stranded DNA genomes of 125–241 kbp contain 70–170 genes, of which 43 have been inherited from an ancestral herpesvirus. In general, herpesviruses have coevolved with and are highly adapted to their hosts, which comprise many mammalian, avian and reptilian species. Following primary infection, they are able to establish lifelong latent infection, during which there is limited viral gene expression. Severe disease is usually observed only in the foetus, the very young, the immunocompromised or following infection of an alternative host. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Herpesviridae, which is available at ictv.global/report/herpesviridae.

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Three-dimensional structure of herpes simplex virus from cryo-electron tomography.

Prashant Desai, Wolfgang Baumeister, David M Belnap … (2003)

Herpes simplex virus, a DNA virus of high complexity, consists of a nucleocapsid surrounded by the tegument-a protein compartment-and the envelope. The latter components, essential for infectivity, are pleiomorphic. Visualized in cryo-electron tomograms of isolated virions, the tegument was seen to form an asymmetric cap: On one side, the capsid closely approached the envelope; on the other side, they were separated by approximately 35 nanometers of tegument. The tegument substructure was particulate, with some short actin-like filaments. The envelope contained 600 to 750 glycoprotein spikes that varied in length, spacing, and in the angles at which they emerge from the membrane. Their distribution was nonrandom, suggesting functional clustering.

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Topics in herpesvirus genomics and evolution.

Duncan McGeoch, Frazer Rixon, Andrew Davison (2006)

Herpesviruses comprise an abundant, widely distributed group of large DNA viruses of humans and other vertebrates, and overall are among the most extensively studied large DNA viruses. Many herpesvirus genome sequences have been determined, and interpreted in terms of gene contents to give detailed views of both ubiquitous and lineage-specific functions. Availability of gene sequences has also enabled evaluations of evolutionary relationships. For herpesviruses of mammals, a robust phylogenetic tree has been constructed, which shows many features characteristic of synchronous development of virus and host lineages over large evolutionary timespans. It has also emerged that three distinct groupings of herpesviruses exist: the first containing viruses with mammals, birds and reptiles as natural hosts; the second containing viruses of amphibians and fish; and the third consisting of a single invertebrate herpesvirus. Within each of the first two groups, the genomes show clear evidence of descent from a common ancestor, but relationships between the three groups are extremely remote. Detailed analyses of capsid structures provide the best evidence for a common origin of the three groups. At a finer level, the structure of the capsid shell protein further suggests an element of common origin between herpesviruses and tailed DNA bacteriophages.

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Structure of the herpes simplex virus portal-vertex

Marion McElwee, Swetha Vijayakrishnan, Frazer Rixon … (2018)

Herpesviruses include many important human pathogens such as herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, varicella-zoster virus, and the oncogenic Epstein–Barr virus and Kaposi sarcoma–associated herpesvirus. Herpes virions contain a large icosahedral capsid that has a portal at a unique 5-fold vertex, similar to that seen in the tailed bacteriophages. The portal is a molecular motor through which the viral genome enters the capsid during virion morphogenesis. The genome also exits the capsid through the portal-vertex when it is injected through the nuclear pore into the nucleus of a new host cell to initiate infection. Structural investigations of the herpesvirus portal-vertex have proven challenging, owing to the small size of the tail-like portal-vertex–associated tegument (PVAT) and the presence of the tegument layer that lays between the nucleocapsid and the viral envelope, obscuring the view of the portal-vertex. Here, we show the structure of the herpes simplex virus portal-vertex at subnanometer resolution, solved by electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM) and single-particle 3D reconstruction. This led to a number of new discoveries, including the presence of two previously unknown portal-associated structures that occupy the sites normally taken by the penton and the Ta triplex. Our data revealed that the PVAT is composed of 10 copies of the C-terminal domain of pUL25, which are uniquely arranged as two tiers of star-shaped density. Our 3D reconstruction of the portal-vertex also shows that one end of the viral genome extends outside the portal in the manner described for some bacteriophages but not previously seen in any eukaryote viruses. Finally, we show that the viral genome is consistently packed in a highly ordered left-handed spool to form concentric shells of DNA. Our data provide new insights into the structure of a molecular machine critical to the biology of an important class of human pathogens.

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Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Gen Virol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Gen Virol

Journal ID (hwp): jgv

Journal ID (publisher-id): jgv

Title: The Journal of General Virology

Publisher: Microbiology Society

ISSN (Print): 0022-1317

ISSN (Electronic): 1465-2099

Publication date Collection: 2021

Publication date (Electronic): 27 October 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 27 October 2021

Volume: 102

Issue: 10

Electronic Location Identifier: 001673

Affiliations

[ ¹ ] Lancaster University , UK

[ ² ] NYU School of Medicine , New York, New York, USA

[ ³ ] The University of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia

[ ⁴ ] Pennsylvania State University , Pennsylvania, USA

[ ⁵ ] departmentVeterinary Medical Research Institute , Eötvös Loránd Research Network , Budapest, Hungary

[ ⁶ ] University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison, Wisconsin, USA

[ ⁷ ] University of Cambridge , UK

[ ⁸ ] Animal and Plant Health Agency-Weybridge , Addlestone, Surrey, UK

[ ⁹ ] departmentVirokine Therapeutics , London BioScience Innovation Centre, Royal Veterinary College , London, UK

[ ¹⁰ ] Gifu Pharmaceutical University , Gifu, Japan

[ ¹¹ ] University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois, USA

[ ¹² ] University of Delhi South Campus , New Delhi, India

[ ¹³ ] Institut Pasteur du Laos , Vientiane, Lao PDR, Laos

[ ¹⁴ ] University of Gothenburg , Gothenburg, Sweden

[ ¹⁵ ] University of Bern , Switzerland

[ ¹⁶ ] University of Glasgow , UK

[ ¹⁷ ] Wayne State University School of Medicine , Detroit, Michigan, USA

[ ¹⁸ ] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Atlanta, Georgia, USA

[ ¹⁹ ] US National Poultry Research Center , Athens, Georgia, USA

[ ²⁰ ] University of Liverpool , UK

[ ²¹ ] Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin, Germany

[ ²² ] University of Florida , Gainesville, Florida, USA

Author notes

*Correspondence: Andrew J. Davison, andrew.davison@ 123456glasgow.ac.uk

Article

Publisher ID: 001673

DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.001673

PMC ID: 8604186

PubMed ID: 34704922

SO-VID: 97467ad5-1fda-414a-89df-bf0353800b10

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

History

Date received : 11 August 2021

Date accepted : 14 August 2021

Funding

Funded by: Wellcome Trust

Award ID: WT108418AIA

Award Recipient : ICTVConsortium

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ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Herpesviridae 2021

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Most cited references 5

Three-dimensional structure of herpes simplex virus from cryo-electron tomography.

Topics in herpesvirus genomics and evolution.

Structure of the herpes simplex virus portal-vertex

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