Lentivirus genomic organization: the complete nucleotide sequence of the env gene region of equine infectious anemia virus

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence of the envelope (env) gene region of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), a member of the lentivirus subfamily of retroviruses, has been determined from a clone of integrated proviral DNA for which the gag and pol sequences have been reported previously. The env gene is 859 codons in length and the sequence reported here is consistent with the published biochemical properties of EIAV glycoproteins. The env gene region of EIAV shares considerable structural similarities but negligible sequence homologies with the env genes of other members of the lentivirus subfamily, visna virus, and human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV-III) or lymphadenopathy virus (LAV). As in visna virus and HTLV-III, the polymerase (pol) and env genes of EIAV do not overlap. EIAV contains two short open reading frames (orf) of 50 and 66 codons in the pol-env intergenic region. However, unlike the orf Q regions reported for visna virus and HTLV-III, neither EIAV orf overlaps the 3' terminus of the adjacent pol gene. The EIAV genome also contains a third short open reading frame of 135 codons which is contained completely within the env gene, in contrast to the 3'-orf/orf F gene reported for HTLV-III/LAV which extends beyond the env gene terminus. These results provide a detailed description of the env gene region of EIAV and describe a number of characteristic features of genomic organization in lentiviruses which contrast with the genomic organization of oncogenic retroviruses.