title: Construction and characterization of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 3 infectious molecular clone.
abstract: We and others have uncovered the existence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 3 (HTLV-3). We have now generated an HTLV-3 proviral clone. We established that gag, env, pol, pro, and tax/rex as well as minus-strand mRNAs are present in cells transfected with the HTLV-3 clone. HTLV-3 p24(gag) protein is detected in the cell culture supernatant. Transfection of 293T-long terminal repeat (LTR)-green fluorescent protein (GFP) cells with the HTLV-3 clone promotes formation of syncytia, a hallmark of Env expression, together with the appearance of fluorescent cells, demonstrating that Tax is expressed. Viral particles are visible by electron microscopy. These particles are infectious, as demonstrated by infection experiments with purified virions.
authors.affiliation: Unité d'Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes, CNRS URA 3015, Département de Virologie, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, 75015 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sébastien Alain
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Chevalier
authors.forename: Nga Ling
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calattini
authors.forename: Adeline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mallet
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Prévost
authors.forename: Kylene
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kehn
authors.forename: John N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Brady
authors.forename: Fatah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kashanchi
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gessain
authors.forename: Renaud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahieux
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D016356:Gene Products, tax / Q000378:metabolism*; D015726:Giant Cells / Q000821:virology; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D030282:Primate T-lymphotropic virus 3 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D016356:Gene Products, tax; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins