Kaposi's sarcoma-associated Herpes virus (KSHV) belongs to the gamma-(2)-Herpes virus subfamily and has been closely linked to the Kaposi’s sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and multicentric Castleman’s disease. The genome of KSHV is 165-170 kb and contains at least 88 open reading frames. At least five major proteins are likely to be involved in the assembly of the HHV-8 capsid, including a protease (encoded by ORF17), the major capsid protein (encoded by ORF25), and three other smaller capsid proteins (encoded by ORF62, ORF26, and ORF65). Previous structural studies have shown that the HSV-1 triplex is a monomer of VP19c and a dimer of VP23 and that the HCMV triplex is similarly composed of a monomer and a dimer. By analogy, the KSHV triplexes are likely also composed of a monomer of the ORF62 protein and a dimer of the ORF26 protein, which are the respective homologs of VP19c and VP23.
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