title: Simian immunodeficiency viruses from African green monkeys display unusual genetic diversity.
abstract: African green monkeys are asymptomatic carriers of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV), commonly called SIVagm. As many as 50% of African green monkeys in the wild may be SIV seropositive. This high seroprevalence rate and the potential for genetic variation of lentiviruses suggested to us that African green monkeys may harbor widely differing genotypes of SIVagm. To investigate this hypothesis, we determined the entire nucleotide sequence of an infectious proviral molecular clone of SIVagm (155-4) and partial sequences (long terminal repeat and Gag) of three other distinct SIVagm isolates (90, gri-1, and ver-1). Comparisons among the SIVagm isolates revealed extreme diversity at the nucleotide and amino acid levels. Long terminal repeat nucleotide sequences varied up to 35% and Gag protein sequences varied up to 30%. The variability among SIVagm isolates exceeded the variability among any other group of primate lentiviruses. Our data suggest that SIVagm has been in the African green monkey population for a long time and may be the oldest primate lentivirus group in existence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Georgetown University, Rockville, Maryland 20852.
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fomsgaard
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gravell
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: London
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Olmsted
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Hirsch
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002521:Cercopithecus / Q000382:microbiology*; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops / Q000382:microbiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006678:HIV / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins