title: Virological properties and nucleotide sequences of Cas-E-type endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia viruses in South Asian wild mice, Mus musculus castaneus.
abstract: Two types of endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs), termed AKV- and Cas-E-type MuLVs, differ in nucleotide sequence and distribution in wild mouse subspecies. In contrast to AKV-type MuLV, Cas-E-type MuLV is not carried by common laboratory mice. Wild mice of Mus musculus (M. m.) castaneus carry multiple copies of Cas-E-type endogenous MuLV, including the Fv-4(r) gene that is a truncated form of integrated MuLV and functions as a host's resistance gene against ecotropic MuLV infection. Our genetic cross experiments showed that only the Fv-4(r) gene was associated with resistance to ecotropic F-MuLV infection. Because the spontaneous expression of infectious virus was not detected in M. m. castaneus, we generated mice that did not carry the Fv-4(r) gene but did carry a single or a few endogenous MuLV loci. In mice not carrying the Fv-4(r) gene, infectious MuLVs were isolated in association with three of six Cas-E-type endogenous MuLV loci. The isolated viruses showed a weak syncytium-forming activity for XC cells, an interfering property of ecotropic MuLV, and a slight antigenic variation. Two genomic DNAs containing endogenous Cas-E-type MuLV were cloned and partially sequenced. All of the Cas-E-type endogenous MuLVs were closely related, hybrid-type viruses with an ecotropic env gene and a xenotropic long terminal repeat. Duplications and a deletion were found in a restricted region of the hypervariable proline-rich region of Env glycoprotein.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Animal Health, Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken, Japan. hikeda@niah.affrc.go.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitani
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inaguma
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Hyun
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamagata
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Namikawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomita
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016679:Genome, Viral; D009052:Leukemia Virus, Murine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: C103555:Fv4 protein, mouse; D008565:Membrane Proteins