Recently, by employing degenerate oligonucleotide primers designed from a highly conserved region of the DNA polymerase gene of animal and human herpesviruses, a 483-bp sequence of a newfound herpesvirus, designated GTHV, was detected in tumor tissues of green turtles with GTFP. We have now analyzed a 4,837-bp sequence of GTHV, amplified from tumor tissues of a green turtle with fibropapilloma using a genomic walking method (Figure 7), based on restriction enzyme digestion, self-ligation and inverse polymerase chain reaction (iPCR). The 4,837-bp sequence was 56.23% G/C rich and contained three nonoverlapping open reading frames (ORF). The largest ORF (3,507-bp) encoded the DNA polymerase gene (pol gene), which exhibited a high degree of homology at both amino acid and nucleotide levels with the DNA polymerase genes of human and animal herpesviruses, with a predicted protein of 1169 amino acids and molecular weight of 132.6 kilodaltons. The ATG at 518 to 520 was the first initiation codon in the ORF and was presumed to be the first methionine codon of the pol gene. Phylogenetic analysis, based on the full-length DNA pol gene of GTHV and other known human and animal herpesviruses, indicated that GTHV belonged to the alphaherpevirinae subfamily. The upstream ORF of the pol gene encoded the N-terminal region of the GTHV homologue of the DNA-binding protein gene, whereas the downstream ORF was the C-terminal region of a gene which was homologous to ORFs conserved in human and animal herpesviruses, i.e., herpes simplex virus 1 UL31, Epstein-Barr virus BFLF2, equine herpesvirus 1 gene 29, and alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 hypothetical protein 69 gene. The arrangement of these three genes was identical to that seen in other alphaherpesviruses. The sequence and location of the DNA polymerase gene in the GTHV genome should greatly facilitate future studies aimed at clarifying the viral life cycle.