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.
Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tokyo, Japan.
M
M
Saito
Y
Y
Furukawa
R
R
Kubota
K
K
Usuku
S
S
Izumo
M
M
Osame
M
M
Yoshida
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