title: Evidence for recombination in the envelope gene of maedi-visna virus.
abstract: Frequent recombination occurs during replication in all retroviruses examined. This increases the genetic variation in the retroviral population and may be of importance in the evolution of the virus. Maedi-visna virus (MVV), a retrovirus of sheep, has a highly variable envelope gene. In a previous experiment, 20 sheep were infected with an uncloned strain of MVV and virus was isolated at regular intervals for 7 years. We sequenced the envelope genes of a number of these strains and found evidence for recombination that may have contributed to the observed high frequency of antigenic variants.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental Pathology, University of Iceland, Keldur, IS-112 Reykjavík, Iceland. valand@hi.is
authors.forename: Valgerdur
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Andrésdóttir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D001483:Base Sequence; D015752:Genes, env; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012756:Sheep; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016182:Visna / Q000821:virology*; D014790:Visna-maedi virus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins