No description available.

VP16 initiates the HSV replication cycle by activating immediate early (IE) gene expression. It recruits the RNA pol II through an acidic C-terminal domain. The defective VP16 encoded by the V422 mutant of HSV-1 possesses a truncated C-terminal domain. Therefore, V422 replication is suppressed in most cell-lines, except U2OS osteosarcoma cells. The permissive phenotype of U2OS cells stems from a failure to express one or more inhibitory factors that are produced in restrictive cells. The initial project was designed to identify these host inhibitory factors in restrictive cells of V422, using siRNA silencing technology. To facilitate the siRNA screen, a GFP reporter gene has been inserted into the thymindine kinase (TK) gene of the V422 genome and the wild-type KOS genome. This thesis provides information about characterizing the kinetics of GFP expression from recombinant viruses at both protein and mRNA levels, during different infection times in HeLa and Vero cells. / Virology