Genome sequence of bovine herpesvirus 4, a Bovine Rhadinovirus, and identification of an origin of DNA replication

Bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) is a gammaherpesvirus of cattle. The complete long unique coding region (LUR) of BoHV-4 strain 66-p-347 was determined by a shotgun approach. Together with the previously published noncoding terminal repeats, the entire genome sequence of BoHV-4 is now available. The LUR consists of 108,873 bp with an overall G+C content of 41.4%. At least 79 open reading frames (ORFs) are present in this coding region, 17 of them unique to BoHV-4. In contrast to herpesvirus saimiri and human herpesvirus 8, BoHV-4 has a reduced set of ORFs homologous to cellular genes. Gene arrangement as well as phylogenetic analysis confirmed that BoHV-4 is a member of the genus Rhadinovirus. In addition, an origin of replication (ori) in the genome of BoHV-4 was identified by DpnI assays. A minimum of 1.69 kbp located between ORFs 69 and 71 was sufficient to act as a cis signal for replication.