1st International AIDS Conference Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. - April 14-17, 1985

Int Conf AIDS 1985 Apr 14-17; 1:22 (abstract no. S3B)

Paul A Luciw, R Sanchez-Pescador, M Power, P Barr, K Steimer, J Levy, D Dina
Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California and University California, San Francisco

Epidemiological studies support a causal role for a closely related group of retroviruses in the human acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). We have sequenced molecular clones of the DNA from one such virus isolate, ARV-2, to establish the genetic structure of a representative AIDS retrovirus. Proviral DNA of ARV-2 (9739 bp) has LTR (large terminal repeat) structures, (637 bp), and large open reading frames (ORFs) encoding gag (502 codons), pol (712 codons), and env (855 codons). There are three additional ORFs: 254 codons overlapping gag and extending to pol, 203 codons overlapping pol and extending to env, and 235 codons overlapping env and extending into the rightward LTR. Significant amino acid homology with several other retroviruses was noted in the predicted product of gag and pol, but ARV-2 was as closely related to murine and avian retroviruses as it was to human T-cell lymphotropic retroviruses (HTLV-I and II). Sequence variation was observed throughout the cloned genomes of one virus isolate. Using an SV40 vector in transfected simian cells, cloned gag and env genes appeared to direct the synthesis of proteins that reacted with AIDS patients' sera in immunofluorescence tests.

850414
S3B

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