Cloning of a new murine endogenous retrovirus, MuERV-L, with strong similarity to the human HERV-L element and with a gag coding sequence closely related to the Fv1 restriction gene.
We had previously identified a new family of human endogenous retrovirus-like elements, the HERV-L elements (human endogenous retrovirus with leucine tRNA primer), whose pol gene was most closely related to that of the foamy viruses. HERV-L pol-related sequences were also detected in other mammalian species. The recent cloning of the mouse Fv1 gene (S. Best, P. Le Tissier, G. Towers, and J. P. Stoye, Nature 382:826-829, 1996) has shed light on another HERV-L domain--identified as a gag gene based on its location within the provirus--which was found to be 60% identical, at the nucleotide level, to the Fv1 open reading frame (ORF). We have now cloned the murine homolog of HERV-L which, in contrast to HERV-L, displays fully open reading frames in the gag and pol genes. Its predicted Gag protein shares 43% identity with the Fv1 ORF product. Moreover, the characteristic major homology region of the capsid subdomain can be identified within both proteins, thus strongly emphasizing the gag-like origin of Fv1.
Bénit
L
L
Unité de Physicochimie et Pharmacologie des Macromolécules Biologiques, CNRS URA 147, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France.
De Parseval
N
N
Casella
J F
JF
Callebaut
I
I
Cordonnier
A
A
Heidmann
T
T
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015750:Genes, gag; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004279:DNA, Viral; C103189:Fv1 protein, mouse; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C415042:PRCC protein, human; C498808:Prcc protein, mouse; D011506:Proteins