COMPARATIVE FUNCTIONAL-ANALYSIS OF THE VARIOUS LENTIVIRUS LONG TERMINAL REPEATS IN HUMAN COLON-CARCINOMA CELL-LINE (SW480 CELLS) AND FELINE RENAL-CELL LINE (CRFK CELLS)
JOURNAL OF VETERINARY MEDICAL SCIENCE
Authors: MIYAZAWA, T; KAWAGUCHI, Y; KOHMOTO, M; TOMONAGA, K; MIKAMI, T
Abstract
Basal promoter activities of various lentiviral long terminal repeats (LTRs) in a human colon carcinoma cell line (SW480 cells) and a feline renal cell line (CRFK cells) were examined by the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) assay using the LTR-CAT reporter plasmids. In SW480 cells, the basal promoter activities induced by LTRs of visna virus, caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV), and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV(AGM)) were moderate, and those induced by LTRs of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2) were low. However, the activity induced by the LTR of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) was extremely low. In CRFK cells, the basal promoter activities induced by LTRs of visna virus, CAEV and SIV(AGM) were relatively high, and those induced by LTRs of HIV-1, HIV-2 and FIV were moderate. From these data, although the structure of the LTR of FIV is reported to be similar to that of visna virus and CAEV, the function of the LTR of FIV is rather quite different from that of the LTR of these viruses.
MOLECULAR AND GENETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SMALL RUMINANT LENTIVIRUSES IN SLOVENIA
ACTA VETERINARIA HUNGARICA
Authors: Kuhar, Urska; Barlic-Maganja, Darja; Zadnik, Tomaz; Grom, Joze
Abstract
Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) are spread throughout the world, including Slovenia, where the first evidence of caprine arthritis encephalitis virus (CAEV) infection was found in 1996. This study was conducted to investigate the molecular and genetic characteristics of SRLV infection in Slovenia in order to classify our strains in relation to other known SRLV strains worldwide as well as to establish molecular techniques in concordance with serology. In this study, 340 goats and sheep were tested. Serological examination revealed that 57% of the goats and only 14% of the sheep were seropositive. The results of this study also show that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) used in this study is less reliable than ELISA, with only 60.6% of the seropositive animals being PCR positive. Thirty-eight nucleotide sequences of the gag region encoding the matrix protein were determined and compared to sequences derived from the GenBank, revealing that Slovenian SRLV strains belong to sequence groups A and B, being maedivisna virus (MVV) and CAEV-like, respectively. In one goat herd, the presence of more than one genotype was confirmed and the majority of goat SRLV sequences were more closely related to MVV than to CAEV prototype strains.