Determination of the nucleotide sequence for the penton-base gene of human adenovirus type 5

The major structural proteins of adenovirus (Ad), which form the external capsid, are hexon, penton base and fiber. The primary structure of the Ad5 penton base has been deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the corresponding gene. It has 98.6% homology with the sequence of the analogous protein from Ad2. This result is in contrast with the significantly lower homology found for the two other major structural proteins, the hexon and the fiber.