The Lake Casitas wild mouse: evolving genetic resistance to retroviral disease.
A small colony of feral mice from California continues to flourish in spite of a virulent epizootic of pathological retrovirus. Epidemiological and genetic studies revealed that the viral infection is strongly balanced by the polymorphic resistance locus, Fv-4, a transcriptionally active but truncated provirus that originated in the East Asian ancestors of the Californian mice. The natural history of these populations represents a graphic example of genomic adaptation in free-ranging populations to regulate and delimit infectious disease.
Gardner
M B
MB
Department of Medical Pathology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616.
Kozak
C A
CA
O'Brien
S J
SJ
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II / Q000235:genetics*; D015752:Genes, env / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D009115:Muridae / Q000235:genetics*; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000235:genetics*; D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic / Q000235:genetics
D015682:Retroviridae Proteins, Oncogenic