A synthetic gene for a 88 amino acid long env protein fragment of the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV1) has been assembled by ligation of 35 oligodesoxyribonucleotides, which were chemically synthesized by the phosphotriester segmental support method. After cloning into the pEX vector this HTLV1 env-protein fragment was expressed in E. coli.