Prevalence and phylogenetic analysis of HTLV-I isolates in Cameroon, including those of the Baka Pygmy.
Our previous analysis of an HTLV-I isolate (CMR229) from a Cameroonian Pygmy demonstrated that the isolate is distinct from typical HTLV-Is of the "Central African group," which has a close similarity to HTLV-I-related simian viruses (STLV-I) in Africa. In this study, we analyzed six new HTLV-Is from Cameroon consisting of three isolates from the Pygmy and three from the Bantu to examine further the genetic features of HTLV-I in Cameroon, especially in the Pygmy. A phylogenetic tree based on the long terminal repeats (LTR) region showed that all the new HTLV-Is belong to the Central African group. On the other hand, an env-based analysis of CMR229 confirmed the previous finding derived from LTR-based analysis that CMR229 has a similarity to African STLV-Is, but is distinct from the typical Central African group of HTLV-I. This suggests that multiple interspecies transmissions from non-human primates to humans have occurred in Central Africa, resulting in the presence of two distinct HTLV-I strains in this area. In addition, it seems likely that the Pygmy harbors the heterogeneous HTLV-I strains from which the main HTLV-I population spread into the Bantu.
Mboudjeka
I
I
Laboratory of Pathogenic Virus, Kyoto University.
Zekeng
L
L
Yamashita
M
M
Takehisa
J
J
Ido
E
E
Miura
T
T
Ohkura
S
S
Ikeda
M
M
Kaptue
L
L
Hayami
M
M
D001483:Base Sequence; D002163:Cameroon; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
D004279:DNA, Viral; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies