Herpes simplex virus mutants resistant to arabinosyladenine in the presence of deoxycoformycin.

Herpes simplex virus mutants PAAr5, AraAr6, AraAr7, AraAr9, and AraAr13, which previously had been shown to be resistant to arabinosyladenine (araA) alone, were found to be resistant to araA in the presence of high concentrations of the adenosine deaminase inhibitor, deoxycoformycin. The marker conferring resistance to araA and deoxycoformycin in mutant PAAr5 was mapped finely to an 0.8-kilobase-pair region in the herpes simplex virus DNA polymerase locus. These results indicate that the mutants are resistant to araA itself rather than to its deamination product and confirm the importance of the viral polymerase in the antiviral action of araA.