Lipoproteins of varicella-zoster virus

Human fibroblast cells infected with varicella-zoster virus (VZV) showed a slight increase in lipoprotein synthesis, with the production of two major viral lipoproteins, as detected by radioimmunoprecipitation (RIP). Three bands of Mr 73000, 90000 and 97000 were identified as forms of the VZV gpI glycoprotein. All three incorporated both palmitic and myristic acid, and were shown by thin-layer chromatography to contain myristic, palmitic and stearic acids. A very strong band corresponding to 7000 Mr, which may represent the product of VZV gene 49, was detected after RIP and in VZV-infected cells, and was shown to contain almost entirely myristic acid. Several minor bands were also detected. The possible functions of the lipoproteins are discussed. Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is the causative agent of both chickenpox (varicella), resulting from primary infection, and shingles (zoster), resulting from reactiva- tion of latent virus. The genome of the virus has recently been sequenced (Davison & Scott, 1986), but many of the mechanisms of virus pathogenesis are still poorly understood. VZV is known to possess many functions which require interaction with membranes (Heath, 1987). With other viruses such functions are known to involve viral lipoproteins (Schmidt, 1983; Schultz & Oroszlan, 1984), which also appear to be important in many stages of viral pathogenesis. With the human herpesviruses, lipoproteins have been identified only for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), of which the gE