Physical mapping of human cytomegalovirus genes: identification of DNA sequences coding for a virion phosphoprotein of 71 kDa and a viral 65-kDa polypeptide.

Polyadenylated RNA was isolated from fibroblast cultures infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strain AD169 during the late phase of viral replication. The RNA was selected by hybridization to a series of cosmid clones containing the entire viral genome in partially overlapping segments. Translation of this RNA in a reticulocyte cell-free system allowed the mapping of virus specific polypeptides. Nine polypeptides synthesized in vitro comigrated with major virion structural proteins. An in vitro-translated protein of 71 kDa was precipitated by a monoclonal antibody directed against the phosphorylated internal envelope protein of 71 kDa. The map coordinates of viral DNA coding for this phosphoprotein were localized by hybrid selection with subcloned DNA fragments, and the direction of transcription was determined by hybrid selection with single-stranded DNA cloned in bacteriophage vector M13mp9. An in vitro translation with size-fractionated RNA, combined with immunoprecipitation and Northern blot analyses, indicated that an mRNA of 4 kb encodes the 71-kDa phosphoprotein. An mRNA of the same size, map coordinates, and orientation was translated into an abundant 65-kDa polypeptide which had the same size as the major structural phosphoprotein of HCMV.