Ruis B L, Benson S J, Conklin K F
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
J Virol. 1999 Jul;73(7):5345-55. doi: 10.1128/JVI.73.7.5345-5355.1999.
We recently reported the identification of sequences in the chicken genome that show over 95% identity to the novel envelope gene of the subgroup J avian leukosis virus (S. J. Benson, B. L. Ruis, A. M. Fadly, and K. F. Conklin, J. Virol. 72:10157-10164, 1998). Based on the fact that the endogenous subgroup J-related env genes were associated with long terminal repeats (LTRs), we concluded that these LTR-env sequences defined a new family of avian endogenous viruses that we designated the ev/J family. In this report, we have further characterized the content and expression of the ev/J proviruses. The data obtained indicate that there are between 6 and 11 copies of ev/J proviruses in all chicken cells examined and that these proviruses fall into six classes. Of the 18 proviruses examined, all share a high degree of sequence identity and all contain an internal deletion that removes all of the pol gene and various amounts of gag and env gene sequences. Sequencing of the gag genes, LTRs, and untranslated regions of several ev/J proviruses revealed a high level of identity between isolates, indicating that they have not undergone significant sequence variation since their introduction into the avian germ line. Although the ev/J gag gene showed a relatively weak relationship (46% identity and 61% similarity at the amino acid level) to that of the avian leukosis-sarcoma virus family, it retains several sequences of demonstrated importance for virus assembly, budding, and/or infectivity. Finally, evidence was obtained that at least some members of the ev/J family are expressed and, if translated, could encode Gag- and Env-related polypeptides.
我们最近报道了在鸡基因组中鉴定出的序列，这些序列与J亚群禽白血病病毒的新型包膜基因具有超过95%的同源性（S. J. 本森、B. L. 鲁伊斯、A. M. 法德利和K. F. 康克林，《病毒学杂志》72:10157 - 10164，1998年）。基于内源性J亚群相关env基因与长末端重复序列（LTRs）相关联这一事实，我们得出结论，这些LTR - env序列定义了一个新的禽内源性病毒家族，我们将其命名为ev/J家族。在本报告中，我们进一步对ev/J前病毒的内容和表达进行了表征。所获得的数据表明，在所有检测的鸡细胞中，ev/J前病毒有6到11个拷贝，并且这些前病毒分为六类。在检测的18个前病毒中，所有前病毒都具有高度的序列同源性，并且都包含一个内部缺失，该缺失去除了所有的pol基因以及不同数量的gag和env基因序列。对几个ev/J前病毒的gag基因、LTRs和非翻译区进行测序，结果显示分离株之间具有高度的同源性，这表明自它们引入禽种系以来，并未发生显著的序列变异。尽管ev/J gag基因与禽白血病 - 肉瘤病毒家族的gag基因在氨基酸水平上显示出相对较弱的关系（46%的同源性和61%的相似性），但它保留了几个对病毒组装、出芽和/或感染性具有重要作用的序列。最后，有证据表明ev/J家族的至少一些成员是有表达的，如果进行翻译，可能会编码与Gag和Env相关的多肽。
