Human herpesvirus 6 (strain U1102) encodes homologues of the conserved herpesvirus glycoprotein gM and the alphaherpesvirus origin-binding protein.

The nucleotide sequence of 3,134 bp from the genome of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) strain U1102 was determined. The sequence overlaps and is contiguous with the 21,858 bp nucleotide sequence published by us previously. The sequence reported here encodes two open reading frames, named 18L and 19R. The protein encoded by 18L shares amino acid sequence similarity with the multiply hydrophobic glycoprotein M conserved in the genomes of all herpesviruses sequenced to date. ORF 19R encodes a protein which shares a significant degree of amino acid sequence conservation with the origin-binding protein homologues encoded by members of the alphaherpesvirus subgroup, but does not share detectable amino acid sequence homology with positionally analogous open reading frames present in the genomes of other betaherpesviruses or in the genomes of gammaherpesviruses.