Seroepidemiologic, molecular, and phylogenetic analyses of simian T-cell leukemia viruses (STLV-I) from various naturally infected monkey species from central and western Africa.
A study of simian T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus infection, conducted on 747 nonhuman primates belonging to 14 different species in Central and Western Africa, indicated that 4 species (Cercopithecus aethiops, Erythrocebus patas, Papio doguera, and Cercopithecus mona pogonias) had a high prevalence of seropositivity to simian T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus type I (STLV-I). The other nonhuman primate species, however, had negative or low levels of anti-HTLV-I antibodies. STLV-I pol and env DNA was detected in 12 of 12 different animals among the seropositive species. However, STLV-I pX DNA could be detected in only 10 of 12 animals. Comparative phylogenetic analyses based on 140 bp sequence of the pol gene indicate that these STLV-I isolates were 0-9% divergent from each other and were 3.5-7% divergent from the prototype related human retrovirus HTLV-I (ATK). The West African STLV-I isolates formed a unique phylogenetic cluster as did most of the Central African STLV-I isolates, save for STLV-I (Tan 90). The phylogenetic data indicate that cross species transmission of HTLV-I and STLV-I continued to occur long after their ancestral strain separated from the progenitor to HTLV-II. Comparative amino acid analyses indicated that there was marked conservation of the TAX protein regardless of host species, while the pol and REX proteins exhibited increasing levels of diversity.
Saksena
N K
NK
Department of Medicine, SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse 13210.
Herve
V
V
Durand
J P
JP
Leguenno
B
B
Diop
O M
OM
Digouette
J P
JP
Mathiot
C
C
Muller
M C
MC
Love
J L
JL
Dube
S
S
D000350:Africa, Central / Q000453:epidemiology; D000354:Africa, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000382:microbiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002521:Cercopithecus / Q000382:microbiology; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004901:Erythrocebus patas / Q000382:microbiology; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000662:veterinary; D000882:Haplorhini / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008992:Monkey Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010215:Papio / Q000382:microbiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D015303:Simian T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology