Different genomic fragments encode for two human herpesvirus 6 early proteins that share a cross-reactive antigen

A monoclonal antibody was previously described which precipitated two human herpesvirus 6 early proteins. The experiments reported in this paper were designed to determine the relationship of these two proteins. This was determined by probing enzymatically digested viral DNA with a cloned p41 cDNA construct and with a synthetic p38 oligonucleotide. These probes reacted with genomic fragments of different sizes following enzymatic digestion. In addition, the p38 synthetic probe reacted with uninfected cell DNA. These results indicated that p41 and p38 share an antigenic epitope but are encoded by different genomic fragments.