Previous studies have demonstrated that the MHV genome is divided into seven transcriptional units which are transcribed from highly conserved intergenic start sites (UCU/CAAAC) into mRNA containing a common leader RNA at the 5' end and a coterminal 3' end. In this manuscript, we provide evidence that an additional transcriptional unit is encoded at the 3' end of the MHV genome and is transcribed from a perfect intergenic region into a leader-containing approximately 800 nt mRNA. This mRNA could potentially encode a small 17-18 kDa protein which is identical to the C-terminal third of the nucleocapsid gene.