ISSN:
1432-1432
Keywords:
Key words: HTLV — Tax — Rex — CTL — Deletion — Selection forces
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract. HTLV-I causes T-cell leukemia and tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) in a minority of infected people, whereas the majority remain healthy. The virus differs little in sequence between isolates but has been shown to have a quasispecies structure. Using the Nei and Gojobori algorithm, we have shown that the proportion of nonsynonymous to synonymous changes in HTLV-I proviral tax gene sequences from healthy seropositive subjects (Dn/Ds= 0.9 to 1.3) is significantly higher than those from TSP patients (Dn/Ds= 0.3 to 0.6). Here we show that the distinction between healthy seropositives and TSP patients can only be seen with proviral tax sequences, but not with cDNA, the amino-terminal or carboxy-terminal half of tax, or the rex gene. The Dn/Ds ratio of proviral tax sequences was used to analyze two TSP patients with atypical features and to investigate the influence of cytotoxic T cells (CTL) on the viral quasispecies.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/PL00006073
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