The mouse homolog of the bovine leukemia virus receptor is closely related to the delta subunit of adaptor-related protein complex AP-3, not associated with the cell surface.

A mouse cDNA (mBLVR1) which was highly homologous to the bovine cDNA of the bovine leukemia virus receptor (BLVR) gene was cloned. The mBLVR1 cDNA, of 4,730 bp, covered nearly the full length of the mRNA (about 5 kb) and included an open reading frame (ORF) encoding a protein of 1,199 amino acids. While the bovine BLVR protein was thought to be a type I transmembrane protein, the deduced protein coded by mBLVR1 did not appear to be a typical transmembrane protein. The ORF of mBLVR1 ended at a site 280 amino acids upstream of the termination codon of the bovine BLVR ORF, so the deduced mouse BLVR protein lacked the corresponding transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions of the predicted bovine BLVR protein. No significant hydrophobic region was found in the mouse protein. Recently, a human cDNA which was highly homologous (69.6% homology) to the mouse BLVR gene was reported. The cDNA encodes the delta subunit of the human adaptor-related protein complex AP-3, which aligned almost collinearly with the mouse BLVR protein. AP-3 and all other related adaptor protein complexes have been shown to be associated with intracellular vesicles but not with the cell surface. Thus, the mouse BLVR homolog appeared to be the mouse AP-3 delta subunit itself or closely related to it, but the bovine BLVR gene seemed slightly different from the adaptor subunit gene family.