CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SPLICED POL TRANSCRIPT OF FELINE FOAMY VIRUS - THE SPLICE ACCEPTOR SITE OF THE POL TRANSCRIPT IS LOCATED IN GAG OF FOAMY VIRUSES

Foamy viruses, or spumaviruses, are distinct members of the Retrovirid ae, sere me have characterized the long terminal repeat of the feline, or cat, foamy virus by determining the locations of the transcription al start site and tile poly(A) addition site, The splice donor and spl ice acceptor sites of the subgenomic mRNA responsible for Pro-Pol prot ein expression were identified by nucleotide sequencing of the corresp onding cDNAs. The leader exon of the feline foamy virus is 57 nucleoti des long. The splice acceptor of the subgenomic pol mRNA was found to be located in gag. The location of the splice acceptor of the human fo amy virus pol mRNA was confirmed to map in gag, The pol splice accepto r site in gag of the cat foamy virus is located further downstream tha n that of human foamy virus.