Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes: A Functional Genomics Tool for the Study of Positive-strand RNA Viruses
Published on: December 29, 2015
The Epstein-Barr virus genome encodes deoxythymidine kinase activity in a nested internal open reading frame
1Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216-4505, USA.
Abstract:
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) BXLF1 fragment open reading frame (LORF), though to encode deoxythymidine kinase (dTK) activity, and a shorter frame (SORF), starting at an internal in-frame AUG, were isolated by polymerase chain reaction from a plasmid containing the EcoR1 fragment of EBV strain FF-41. These were transfected into dTK-Escherichia coli, producing multiple SORF- or LORF-containing colonies, which expressed dTK. The 243 NH2-terminal residues of the LORF-encoded polypeptide thus are not essential for dTK activity. SORF, with 1,092 bp, is predicted to encode a 36- to 37-kD polypeptide, in the size range of other herpesviral dTKs.
Related Concept Videos
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Retroviruses
Leaky Scanning
Size and Structure of Viral Genomes
Viruses with RNA Genomes
Antiviral Nucleoside Inhibitors

