Genomic heterogeneity of small ruminant lentiviruses: existence of heterogeneous populations in sheep and of the same lentiviral genotypes in sheep and goats
Résumé
We have recently shown that French small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) from sheep are more similar to Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) than to visna maedi virus (VMV) in a conserved region of the pol gene. To extend these results, we have examined sequences from a variable region of the env gene in French SRLV. We found that they were nearly equally distant from both CAEV and VMV strains, suggesting a considerable divergence since the initial introduction of the virus. Analysis of separate clones from individual animals showed that some carry a population of variant viruses. The study of further pol gene sequences from both goats and sheep suggests that viral variants show little or no host species specificity. A phylogenetic tree of pol gene sequences confirmed the presence of a novel genotype of SRLV in France.
Mots clés
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Base Sequence
DNA
Viral
Genes
env
pol
Genetic Heterogeneity
Genome
Goats
Lentiviruses
Ovine-Caprine/classification/*genetics
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Ruminants/virology
Sequence Homology
Amino Acid
Sheep
wether hoggs
nannygoats
protein structure primary