Smallpox B5R Products

Vaccinia virus, a member of Poxviridae family, is a dsDNA enveloped virus. It consists of 4 types of virion stages among which extracellular enveloped virus (EEV) is critical for cell-to-cell and long range viral infection. B5R is an EEV-specific Type I membrane glycoprotein essential for EEV formation. It consists of a large ectodomain containing regions similar to SCR domains of complement regulatory proteins followed by a transmembrane region and a cytoplasmic tail. B5R is essential for efficient wrapping of IMV, actin tail formation, normal plaque size, virus virulence, incorporation of the protein into EEV and for EEV formation.