title: LTR sequence and phylogenetic analyses of a newly discovered variant of HTLV-I isolated from the Hagahai of Papua New Guinea.
abstract: A 631-bp region of the long terminal repeat (LTR) of a variant of human T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), isolated from a healthy member of a remote, recently contacted group (Hagahai) in Papua New Guinea, was sequenced and compared to LTR sequences of other members of the primate T-cell lymphoma virus group (PTLV), including HTLV-I, simian T-cell lymphoma virus (STLV-I) and HTLV-II. Sequence analysis of the LTR of this New Guinean isolate, designated as HTLV-I(PNG-1), indicated a sequence divergence of 8.4% to 10.4% from prototype Japanese HTLV-I(ATK) and other HTLV-I and STLV-I isolates and 48.6% diversity from HTLV-II. Few mutations were found in the core elements of the transcriptional enhancer regions, the TATA box promoter, and the polyadenylation signal and site. Further, the observed changes did not significantly alter the inferred stability of the Rex response element, a stem loop structure critical for polyadenylation and Rex protein binding. Dendograms based on LTR sequences indicated that the strain of virus that evolved into HTLV-I(PNG-1) diverged from the other PTLV in the distant past, just after the progenitors of STLV-I from Asia, but before the ancestors of STLV-I from Africa. By contrast, other HTLV-I isolates were found to represent strains of virus that have diverged more recently and clustered primarily according to their geographical origin. These data confirm that HTLV-I(PNG-1) is a new and distinct variant of the PTLV group. Also, our analyses suggest that both HTLV-I and STLV-I may have originated in the Indo-Malay region and eventually spread to Africa and then to the New World and Japan with horizontal transmission between man and nonhuman primates possibly occurring over thousands of years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, State University of New York, Syracuse 13210.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Saksena
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagihara
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Dube
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Poiesz
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D044383:Black People; D016370:Gene Products, rex / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010219:Papua New Guinea / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D016370:Gene Products, rex