L. Cervenakova et al., INFECTIOUS AMYLOID PRECURSOR GENE-SEQUENCES IN PRIMATES USED FOR EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 91(25), 1994, pp. 12159-12162
Based on the analysis of genomic DNA from single healthy animals of ea
ch of five primate species, nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequen
ces of the infectious amyloid precursor gene of higher apes (Gorilla a
nd Pan) and Old World (Macaca) and New World (Ateles, Saimiri) monkeys
showed 95-99% homology to the human sequences, corresponding to their
phylogenetic distance from humans. Two of 18 amino acids that differe
d from humans resulted from nucleotide changes at sites of mutations i
n humans with familial forms of spongiform encephalopathy (a deleted c
odon within the codon 51-91 region of 24 bp repeats and a substitution
at codon 198). In each of the five animals, codon 129 specified methi
onine, the more common of the two polymorphic genotypes in humans. Bec
ause genotypic homology did not correlate with experimental transmissi
on rates of human spongiform encephalopathy, primary structural simila
rity of the infectious amyloid precursor protein in humans and experim
ental primates may not be an important factor in disease transmissibil
ity.