Questions on the evolution of primate T-lymphotropic viruses raised by molecular and epidemiological studies of divergent strains.

In human and simian T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV and STLV), collectively referred to as primate T-lymphotropic viruses (PTLV), four distinct clades can be distinguished: PTLV-I, PTLV-II, and the newly discovered divergent STLVs isolated from hamadryas baboons and from bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees). The hamadryas STLV is clearly distinct from types I and II, in terms both of sequence divergence and of genomic structure, and would qualify as a separate type, provisionally called PTLV-L. The bonobo STLV is closer to, although clearly distinct from, PTLV-II, at present known only in humans. While PTLV-II, PTLV-L, and the bonobo STLV appear presently to be species specific, PTLV-I has spread during its evolution through repeated interspecies transmissions between primates and is now present in many species of Old World monkeys and apes and in humans. The human subtypes of PTLV-I arose from at least three acquisitions from separate simian reservoirs.