Thymine salvage, mitochondria, and the evolution of the herpesviruses.

The salvage of thymine is an apparently ubiquitous feature of free-living lifeforms as well as of mitochondria, chloroplasts and most of the large DNA viruses. Assumptions and data are described which explain the evolution of thymine salvage in prokaryotes, animal cells, and large DNA viruses, in terms of deoxythymidine kinase and its relationship to mitochondria. Specifically, it is suggested that regulation of deoxythymidine kinase (by end-product inhibition) has evolved as a means of assuring a constant supply of thymine compounds for the mitochondria and that the degree to which this regulation is present in the deoxythymidine kinases of the various herpesviruses correlates with the degree of dependence of their replicative cycle on the continued health of the mitochondria of their host cells.