We investigated the role of two core cohesin subunits, SMC1 and Rad21, in HSV-1 lytic infection and found that cohesin is recruited to the HSV-1 replication compartment, its knockdown repressed the formation of the replication compartment, suggesting that cohesin promotes the formation of the HSV-1 replication compartment. The gene discussed is RAD21; the disease is infection.