Recombinant Bovine Leukemia Virus gp51

As the causative agent of enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a retrovirus and an oncogenic member of the Deltaretrovirus genus. Most BLV-infected cattle are asymptomatic carriers of the virus, but it has been shown that although lymphocyte counts are not elevated in cattle that are asymptomatic carriers, there is an increase in CD5⁺IgM⁺B cells, and additionally this group of cattle may exhibit some degree of immune dysregulation, leading to economic losses including reduced milk production, high incidence of infectious diseases, and reproductive inefficiency. The clinical symptoms of tumors induced by BLV are various, including digestive disorders, weight loss, weakness, loss of appetite, decreased milk production and lymph node enlargement.

The BLV genome consists of 8714 nucleotides. It includes essential structural proteins, enzyme-coding genes, and a pX region flanked by two identical long terminal repeats (LTRs). Structural proteins and enzyme-coding genes, namely gag, pro, pol, and env, play indispensable roles in the virus life cycle, virus infectivity, and production of infectious virus particles. The gag gene of BLV is translated into pre-Pr45 gag and processed to produce three mature proteins. The matrix protein p15, which binds to the viral genomic RNA and interacts with the lipid bilayer of the viral membrane; the capsid protein p24, which is the main target of host immune response, is found to have a high antibody titer against this molecule in the serum of infected animals, and the nucleocapsid protein p12 binds to the packaged genomic RNA. The env gene encodes the mature extracellular protein gp51 and the transmembrane protein gp30. The pX region between env and the 3′ LTR encodes the regulatory proteins Tax and Rex, as well as the accessory proteins R3 and G4. Regulatory proteins are important for the regulation of viral transcription, the transformation of BLV-induced leukemogenesis, and the nuclear export of viral RNA to the cytoplasm. R3 and G4 accessory proteins contribute to the maintenance of high viral loads.

Figure 1. Schematic representations of the BLV genome structure (a) and viral particle (b)
(Source: Polat M, et al. 2017)

Creative Diagnostics provides recombinant Bovine Leukemia Virus gp51 for your experiments, its purity is >95% as determined by SDS-PAGE, and the concentration can be selected according to your specific needs, if you have any specific needs or doubts, please do not hesitate to contact us.

BLV gp51
BLV envelope glycoprotein 51