Construction and characterization of a human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 3 infectious molecular clone.
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.
Chevalier
Sébastien Alain
SA
Unité d'Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes, CNRS URA 3015, Département de Virologie, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, 75015 Paris, France.
Ko
Nga Ling
NL
Calattini
Sara
S
Mallet
Adeline
A
Prévost
Marie-Christine
MC
Kehn
Kylene
K
Brady
John N
JN
Kashanchi
Fatah
F
Gessain
Antoine
A
Mahieux
Renaud
R
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
D017931:DNA Primers; D016356:Gene Products, tax; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins