Complete nucleotide sequence of an Amerindian human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) isolate: identification of a variant HTLV-II subtype b from a Guaymi Indian.
The complete nucleotide sequence of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) isolate from a Panamanian Guaymi Indian was determined and analyzed. When this new viral isolate (HTLV-IIG12) was compared with prototypic HTLV-IIMoT, the overall nucleotide sequence similarity was 95.4%, while the predicted amino acid sequence similarity was 97.5%. Although the overall percentage of nucleotide and amino acid identity with prototypic HTLV-IIMoT (subtype a) was high, HTLV-IIG12 displayed several distinctive features that defined it as an HTLV-II subtype b. However, there were several characteristics unique to this isolate, which included a cluster of nucleotide substitutions in the pre-gag region and changes in restriction enzyme sites within the pre-gag region and the gag, pol, env, and pX genes. In addition, two nucleotide changes in the C terminus of the Tax protein coding sequence inserted an Arg residue for a stop codon and appeared to result in a larger tax gene product in HTLV-IIG12. Although the HTLV-IIG12 isolate appears to be a variant of the prototypic HTLV-IIb, this information represents the first complete nucleotide sequence of any HTLV-II subtype b. These data will allow further studies on the evolutionary relationships between the HTLV-II subtypes and between HTLV-I and HTLV-II.
Pardi
D
D
Retrovirus Diseases Branch, National Center of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333.
Switzer
W M
WM
Hadlock
K G
KG
Kaplan
J E
JE
Lal
R B
RB
Folks
T M
TM
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D015750:Genes, gag; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007197:Indians, Central American; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010176:Panama; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016385:TATA Box
D016356:Gene Products, tax