The ICP22 protein selectively modifies the transcription of different kinetic classes of pseudorabies virus genes

Background Pseudorabies virus (PRV), an alpha-herpesvirus of swine, is a widely used model organism in investigations of the molecular pathomechanisms of the herpesviruses. This work is the continuation of our earlier studies, in which we investigated the effect of the abrogation of gene function on the viral transcriptome by knocking out PRV genes playing roles in the coordination of global gene expression of the virus. In this study, we deleted the us1 gene encoding the ICP22, an important viral regulatory protein, and analyzed the changes in the expression of other PRV genes.