Saksena N, Ge YC, Herve V, Diop O, Dwyer D, Miranda M, Cunningham A; National Conference on Human Retroviruses and Related Infections.

Program Abstr Second Natl Conf Hum Retrovir Relat Infect Natl Conf Hum Retrovir Relat Infect 2nd 1995 Wash DC. 1995 Jan 29-Feb 2; 172.

Department of Virology, ICPMR, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

The ORF-I and II of HTLV-1 encode proteins expressed through a mechanism of alternative splicing, a protein 27kDa, encoded by ORF-1 from doubly spliced mRNA (rex ORF-I) and P12-I from singly spliced mRNA (PX ORF-1). The function of P12-I in the process of leukemogenesis is not clearly understood and there is a paucity of sequence analysis of PXORF-I of STLV-1 isolates. In order to understand the role of this region in leukemogenesis it is imperative to know the overall conservation of PXORF-I in human and simian T- cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I. We have analyzed ten STLV-1 isolates from naturally infected feral monkeys from Central and Western Africa. A 300bp fragment, encompassing the P12-I gene, was amplified from fresh uncultured PBMCs. Sequencing analysis of P12-1 gene has revealed that this gene is unique as regards to variation and it is 8 amino acids smaller among STLV-1 isolates from Africa than what is seen in case of HTLV-1 isolates. The premature termination codon (UAG) is a characteristic of all the STLV-1 isolates from Africa. On the contrary, the human HTLV-1 (EL) from Central Africa does not possess this premature UAG signal. In addition, some STLV-1 isolates from West Africa did not possess the AUG (start codon) because of a mutation of AUG leads to GUG (M leads to V). Our data shows that this region in African STLV-1 is 13-15% divergent from West and Central African STLV-1, 20-25% from cosmopolitan HTLV-1, 21% from HTLV-1 (EL) and 30-35% from Asian HTLV-1 isolates at the amino acid level. This is the first sequence analyses of the P12-I gene which clearly demonstrates a major difference between HTLV-1 and STLV-1 genomes.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Africa
• Africa, Central
• Africa, Western
• Animals
• Gene Products, rex
• Gene Products, tax
• HTLV-I Antibodies
• Haplorhini
• Human T-lymphotropic virus 1
• Humans
• Proteins
• Simian T-lymphotropic virus 1

Other ID:

• 95920663

UI: 102213612

From Meeting Abstracts