HUMAN HERPESVIRUS-6 (STRAIN U1102) ENCODES HOMOLOGS OF THE CONSERVED HERPESVIRUS GLYCOPROTEIN GM AND THE ALPHAHERPESVIRUS ORIGIN-BINDING PROTEIN

The nucleotide sequence of 3134 bp from the genome of human herpesviru s 6 (HHV-6) strain U1102 was determined. The sequence overlaps and is contiguous with the 21858 bp nucleotide sequence published by us previ ously. The sequence reported here encodes two open reading frames, nam ed 18L and 19R. The protein encoded by 18L shares amino acid sequence similarity with the multiply hydrophobic glycoprotein M conserved in t he genomes of all herpesviruses sequenced to date. ORF 19R encodes a p rotein which shares a significant degree of amino acid sequence conser vation with the origin-binding protein homologues encoded by members o f the alphaherpesvirus subgroup, but does not share detectable amino a cid sequence homology with positionally analogous open reading frames present in the genomes of other betaherpesviruses or in the genomes of gammaherpesviruses.