Mutation rates in LTR of HTLV-1 in HAM/TSP patients and the carriers are similarly high to Tax/Rex-coding sequence.
The genomic sequence of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is highly conserved, although minor sequence variations enable classification of the isolates into several subgroups. We previously reported, however, that the Tax-coding sequence of HTLV-1 genome is highly variable in a random fashion within individuals with HAM/TSP and asymptomatic carriers. Here, we describe frequent base substitutions in the LTR sequence similarly to those in Tax-coding sequence. These observations indicate that frequent mutations are not unique to the sequence encoding the most effective antigen for cytotoxic T lymphocytes, but also seen in the LTR, a non-coding sequence. Thus, frequent mutations seem to occur during the viral replication process rather than the selection of rare mutants by immune surveillance.
Saito
M
M
Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Furukawa
Y
Y
Kubota
R
R
Usuku
K
K
Izumo
S
S
Osame
M
M
Yoshida
M
M
D001483:Base Sequence; D002353:Carrier State / Q000821:virology*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
D004279:DNA, Viral