Abstract
[125I]Deoxycytidine was a good substrate for herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (TK), but [125I]deoxycytodine was a very poor substrate for cellular TK. Simple, sensitive and specific assays for viral TK could be carried out in vivo and in vitro even in the presence of cell TK. Autoradiographic detection of incorporated [125I]deoxycytidine provided a rapid and simple method for detection of and screnning for viral TK in infected [African green monkey kidney Vero, mouse Ag and hamster] and viral TK-transformed [mouse LMTK-] cells.