NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF PUMA LENTIVIRUS (PLV-14) - GENOMIC ORGANIZATION AND RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LENTIVIRUSES

The complete nucleotide sequence of an isolate of puma lentivirus (PLV -14) was obtained by an inverse polymerase chain reaction (I-PCR) tech nique and confirmed by conventional PCR. Both methods were used to amp lify overlapping regions of proviral DNA, for cloning and sequencing, from genomic DNA isolated from PLV-14 infected Florida puma (Felis con color coryi) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The provirus h as a total length of 9100 nucleotides and the genomic organization of presumed protein coding regions are similar to those seen in other mem bers of the lentivirus family, i.e., three large open reading frames g ag, po(, and env as well as smaller intergenic regions that apparently encode regulatory proteins vif and 3' rev by positional and sequence similarity to those seen in other lentiviruses. Two additional open re ading frames were identified in the env region and their function (if any) is unknown. The length of the PLV-14 long terminal repeat (LTR) w as found to be shorter than the LTRs of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The sequence homology between PLV-14 and other lentiviruses dem onstrates that PLV-14 is most closely related to FIV from domestic cat s. However, the extent of sequence divergence of each retroviral gene segment is large (e.g., percentage sequence similarity between FIV and PLV-14 env is 8% amino acid and 37% nucleotide similarity), indicatin g relatively ancient divergence of these feline lentiviral genomes. (C ) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.