The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), also called Human herpes virus 4 (HHV-4), is a virusof the herpes family (which includes Herpes simplex virusand Cytomegalo virus. On infecting the B-lymphocyte, the linear virus genome circularizes and the virus subsequently persists within the cell as an episome. The virus can execute several distinct programs of gene expressionwhich can be broadly categorized as being lytic cycle or latent cycle. The lytic cycleor productive infection results in staged expression of a host of viral proteinswith the ultimate objective of producing infectious virions. Formally, this phase of infection does not inevitably lead to lysis of the host cellas EBV virions are produced by budding from the infected cell. The latent cycle(lysogenic) programs are those that do not result in production of virions. Alternative Names: EBV HHV4 EA protein, Epstein Barr, Epstein-Barr Virus Early Antigen protein