Identification of new gene products coded from X regions of human T-cell leukemia viruses.

Antibodies were raised against oligopeptides deduced from the nucleotide sequence in the conserved region located between env and the 3' long terminal repeat in human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) and type II (HTLV-II) to detect a protein coded from this region in virus-infected cells. Two of these antibodies precipitated a protein of 41 kilo-daltons in HTLV-I-infected cell lines and a protein of 38 kilo-daltons in HTLV-II-infected cells. The protein in HTLV-I-infected cells was precipitated by plasma from patients with adult T-cell leukemia but not by plasma from a normal adult. These results indicate that these proteins were translated from new coding regions (X) present in HTLV-I and HTLV-II.