IDENTIFICATION OF THE MAJOR CAPSID PROTEIN GENE OF HUMAN HERPESVIRUS-7

Two human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) open reading frames were identified wi th significant amino acid similarity to UL86 (major capsid protein, MC P) and UL85 of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in human herpesvirus 7 (HH V-7) genes. The predicted lengths of the complete HHV-7 MCP and the HC MV-UL85 open reading frames were 1344 and 293 amino acids with estimat ed molecular weights of approximately 153 and 33 kDa, respectively. Co mputer analysis showed that the amino acid of HHV-7 MCP was 61% identi cal to the MCP of HHV-6 variants A and B, 28% to HCMV. These results s uggest that HHV-7 is more closely related to HHV-6 than to HCMV.