Nucleotide Sequence of the 3′Region of an Infectious Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type II Genome

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1984-11, Vol.81 (21), p.6657-6661
• Main Authors: Shimotohno, Kunitada, Wachsman, William, Takahashi, Yuri, Golde, David W., Miwa, Masanao, Sugimura, Takashi, Irvin S. Y. Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AIDS/HIV; Amino acids; B-Lymphocytes - microbiology; Base Sequence; Cell Line; Cell Transformation, Viral; Deltaretrovirus - genetics; DNA; DNA, Recombinant; DNA, Viral; Genes, Viral; Genomes; Human T lymphotropic virus 1; Human T lymphotropic virus 2; Humans; Nucleotides; Open reading frames; Plasmids; Proviruses; T lymphocytes; Viruses
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6657

The nucleic acid sequence of the 3′region of human T-cell leukemia virus type II (HTLV-II) proviral DNA was determined using a HTLV-II proviral clone that could be recovered as infectious, transforming virus. The sequence data indicate a region of unknown function of ≈ 1.6 kilobase pairs in the 3′region, analogous to the X region previously identified in human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I). Three overlapping open reading frames are present in the X region of HTLV-II. One of these open reading frames, Xc, is most likely to encode a protein product, because it has greater predicted amino acid sequence homology (78%) with the X-IV region of HTLV-I and a greater percentage of its base differences with X-IV at the third nucleotide position of codons than do the other open reading frames. Sequences of the X-region that include the open reading frames are conserved in two deletion mutants of HTLV-II, which are associated with a subline of Mo cells with a decreased dependence on fetal bovine serum.