Egress of four important alphaherpesviruses, equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV), and pseudorabies virus (PrV), was investigated by electron microscopy of infected cell lines of different origins. In all virus-cell systems analyzed, similar observations were made concerning the different stages of virion morphogenesis. After intranuclear assembly, nucleocapsids bud at the inner leaflet of the nuclear membrane, resulting in enveloped particles in the perinuclear space that contain a sharply bordered rim of tegument and a smooth envelope surface. Egress from the perinuclear cisterna primarily occurs by fusion of the primary envelope with the outer leaflet of the nuclear membrane, which has been visualized for HSV-1 and EHV-1 for the first time. The resulting intracytoplasmic naked nucleocapsids are enveloped at membranes of the trans-Golgi network (TGN), as shown by immunogold labeling with a TGN-specific antiserum. Virions containing their final envelope differ in morphology from particles within the perinuclear cisterna by visible surface projections and a diffuse tegument. Particularly striking was the addition of a large amount of tegument material to ILTV capsids in the cytoplasm. Extracellular virions were morphologically identical to virions within Golgi-derived vesicles, but distinct from virions in the perinuclear space. Studies with gB-and gH-deleted PrV mutants indicated that these two glycoproteins, which are essential for virus entry and direct cell-to-cell spread, are dispensable for egress. Taken together, our studies indicate that the deenvelopment-reenvelopment process of herpesvirus maturation also occurs in EHV-1, HSV-1, and ILTV and that membrane fusion processes occurring during egress are substantially different from those during entry and direct viral cell-to-cell spread.Herpesviruses are large DNA-containing enveloped viruses that replicate in the nuclei of infected cells. Based on biological parameters and sequence data, the family Herpesviridae is divided into the subfamilies Alpha-, Beta-, and Gammaherpesvirinae (58). Despite their biological diversity, many steps of herpesvirus morphogenesis seem to be conserved. Attached herpesvirus virions penetrate the cell membrane by direct fusion between the viral envelope and the plasma membrane, and the deenveloped nucleocapsids reach the nucleopores by movement along cellular microtubuli, where the genomic DNA is released into the nucleus (19,50,51,52). Progeny nucleocapsids assemble in the nucleus and exit this compartment by budding at the inner nuclear membrane into the perinuclear space (35,47). The subsequent events of envelopment and egress remain controversial. Whereas for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), a model that entails vesicular transport of enveloped virions through the secretory pathway with concomitant in situ modification of virion glycoproteins was initially proposed, for varicella-zoster virus (VZV), pseudorabies virus (PrV), and human cytomegalovir...