title: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) smallest capsid protein identified as product of short open reading frame located between HCMV UL48 and UL49.
abstract: The capsid of cytomegalovirus contains an abundant, low-molecular-weight protein whose coding sequence within the viral genome had not been identified. We have used a combination of biochemical and immunological techniques to demonstrate that this protein, called the smallest capsid protein in human cytomegalovirus, is encoded by a previously unidentified 225-bp open reading frame (ORF) located between ORFs UL48 and UL49. This short ORF, called UL48/49, is the positional homolog of herpes simplex virus ORF UL35 (encoding capsid protein VP26) and shows partial amino acid sequence identity to positional homologs in human herpes viruses 6 and 7.
authors.affiliation: Virology Laboratories, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Clopper
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Britt
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Baxter
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002213:Capsid / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*