GENOMIC HETEROGENEITY OF SMALL RUMINANT LENTIVIRUSES - EXISTENCE OF HETEROGENEOUS POPULATIONS IN SHEEP AND OF THE SAME LENTIVIRAL GENOTYPESIN SHEEP AND GOATS
C. Leroux et al., GENOMIC HETEROGENEITY OF SMALL RUMINANT LENTIVIRUSES - EXISTENCE OF HETEROGENEOUS POPULATIONS IN SHEEP AND OF THE SAME LENTIVIRAL GENOTYPESIN SHEEP AND GOATS, Archives of virology, 142(6), 1997, pp. 1125-1137
We have recently shown that French small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV)
from sheep are more similar to Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (C
AEV) than to visna maedi virus (VMV) in a conserved region of the pol
gene. To extend these results, we have examined sequences from a varia
ble region of the env gene in French SRLV. We found that they were nea
rly equally distant from both CAEV and VMV strains, suggesting a consi
derable divergence since the initial introduction of the virus. Analys
is of separate clones from individual animals showed that some carry a
population of variant viruses. The study of further pol gene sequence
s from both goats and sheep suggests that viral variants show little o
r no host species specificity. A phylogenetic tree of pol gene sequenc
es confirmed the presence of a novel genotype of SRLV in France.