title: Genomic heterogeneity of small ruminant lentiviruses: existence of heterogeneous populations in sheep and of the same lentiviral genotypes in sheep and goats.
abstract: We have recently shown that French small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) from sheep are more similar to Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) than to visna maedi virus (VMV) in a conserved region of the pol gene. To extend these results, we have examined sequences from a variable region of the env gene in French SRLV. We found that they were nearly equally distant from both CAEV and VMV strains, suggesting a considerable divergence since the initial introduction of the virus. Analysis of separate clones from individual animals showed that some carry a population of variant viruses. The study of further pol gene sequences from both goats and sheep suggests that viral variants show little or no host species specificity. A phylogenetic tree of pol gene sequences confirmed the presence of a novel genotype of SRLV in France.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Immunologie et de Biologie Pulmonaire, Hôpital Louis Pradel, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leroux
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chastang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Greenland
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Mornex
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015752:Genes, env; D015751:Genes, pol; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D006041:Goats; D017972:Lentiviruses, Ovine-Caprine / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012418:Ruminants / Q000821:virology; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012756:Sheep
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral