title: Identification of a full-length cDNA for an endogenous retrovirus of miniature swine.
abstract: Endogenous retroviruses of swine are a concern in the use of pig-derived tissues for xenotransplantation into humans. The nucleotide sequence of porcine endogenous retrovirus taken from lymphocytes of miniature swine (PERV-MSL) has been characterized. PERV-MSL is a type C retrovirus of 8,132 bp with the greatest nucleic acid sequence identity to gibbon ape leukemia virus and murine leukemia virus. Constitutive production of PERV-MSL RNA has been detected in normal leukocytes and in multiple organs of swine. The copy numbers of full-length PERV sequences per genome (approximately 8 to 15) vary among swine strains. The open reading frames for gag, pol, and env in PERV-MSL have over 99% amino acid sequence identity to those of Tsukuba-1 retrovirus and are highly homologous to those of endogenous retrovirus of cell line PK15 (PK15-ERV). Most of the differences in the predicted amino acid sequences of PK15-ERV and PERV-MSL are in the SU (cell attachment) region of env. The existence of these PERV clones will enable studies of infection by endogenous retroviruses in xenotransplantation.
authors.affiliation: BioTransplant, Incorporated, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Akiyoshi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Denaro
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Greenstein
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fishman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D018628:Gene Dosage; D015870:Gene Expression; D015723:Gene Library; D015750:Genes, gag; D015751:Genes, pol; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004279:DNA, Viral