It is shown by protein sequence comparisons that a 148 amino acid open reading frame (ORF 148) located at 67% of the bacteriophage T5 genome encodes a protein with strong similarity to known dUTPases. This protein contains five characteristic amino acid sequence motifs that are common to the dUTPase gene family. A similarity in size and high degree of sequence identity strongly suggest that the protein encoded by the ORF 148 of bacteriophage T5 is dUTPase.