title: Human T-lymphotropic virus type I tax polymorphisms in a transmission cohort: no association between sequence variation and disease manifestations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether a unique human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) transmission cohort containing multiple disease manifestations could be used to establish a relationship between tax gene sequence and HTLV disease expression.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of the HTLV-infected persons in the cohort. A 1.1-kb fragment of tax was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned. Six to 12 individual clones were sequenced per person.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparison to a reference ATK strain showed numerous differences; however, consensus tax sequences from all persons within the transmission cohort were identical. Intraperson variation was 0.1% to 0.3%. Tax sequences from the index case did not differ from those obtained from a transfusion recipient who developed tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM). Tax sequences from the same index case did not differ from sequences obtained from the asymptomatic or ATL phases of a second recipient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this cohort there did not appear to be tax genotypes associated with specific disease manifestations of HTLV infection.
authors.affiliation: Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sambor
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pombo de Oliveira
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farhadi
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Blattner
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000235:genetics*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000235:genetics* / Q000635:transmission; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010375:Pedigree; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D016356:Gene Products, tax