THE HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS UL94 OPEN READING FRAME ENCODES A CONSERVEDHERPESVIRUS CAPSID TEGUMENT-ASSOCIATED VIRION PROTEIN THAT IS EXPRESSED WITH TRUE LATE KINETICS/

In this report, we provide a detailed characterization of the human cy tomegalovirus (HCMV) UL94 gene product. Northern (RNA) blot analysis o f infected cell RNA demonstrated that UL94 message was found only at l ate times of infection and was not synthesized in the presence of the viral DNA replication inhibitor ganciclovir. Expression of the UL94 op en reading frame in vitro and in vivo yielded a protein with the predi cted molecular mass of 36 KDa. A monoclonal antibody raised to a UL94- specific peptide reacted specifically with a 36-kDa protein in HCMV-in fected fibroblasts. This protein was found only at late times of infec tion and was also present in purified HCMV virions. Fractionation of p urified virions and HCMV-infected cells revealed an association of UL9 4 immunoreactivity with the capsid/tegument and nuclear fractions, res pectively. The evolutionary conservation of UL94 protein sequence and an analysis of potential functional regions of the protein are discuss ed.