Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of gp51 gene of bovine leukaemia virus in Iranian isolates.

Analysis of the partial bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) gp51 gene sequences obtained from five BLV strains isolated in different regions of Iran and BLV-FLK strain was carried out. The Iranian BLV gp51 sequences were compared with seven other corresponding sequences of BLV strains isolated in different countries. Nucleotide sequence analysis showed a variability of 0.003-5.1% and the phylogenetic tree constructed revealed three clusters. The first cluster included French, German and FLK-BLV samples; the second cluster included four Iranian samples; and the third cluster included Australian, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian and Belgian reference strains and one Iranian sample. Iranian samples were had significantly similarity to European and Australian samples.