Previous studies have shown that defective virus vectors (amplicons) derived from herpes simplex viruses could be efficiently propagated in virus stocks in the presence of trans-acting helper virus functions. The present study established that two separate cis-acting functions--a DNA replication origin and a cleavage/packaging signal--are required for amplicon propagation. Using deleted derivatives of cloned amplicons, we mapped one of the viral DNA replication origins (ori-2 or oriL) at coordinate 0.422 of the standard HSV-1 genome and at an equivalent position within the HSV-2 genome.