TY - JOUR
T1 - Sequence variation of koala retrovirus transmembrane protein p15E among koalas from different geographic regions
AU - Ishida, Yasuko
AU - McCallister, Chelsea
AU - Nikolaidis, Nikolas
AU - Tsangaras, Kyriakos
AU - Helgen, Kristofer M.
AU - Greenwood, Alex D.
AU - Roca, Alfred L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The project described was supported by Grant number R01GM092706 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIGMS or the National Institutes of Health. NN was supported by start-up funds and a state-mini grant from California State University, Fullerton. CM was supported by an HHMI scholarship. KMH was supported by the Smithsonian Institution. For modern koala samples, we thank M. Malasky, R. Hanson, S. O’Brien, M. Bush, J. Graves, W. Sherwin, N. Murray, and D. Wildt; and the Columbus Zoo and San Diego Zoo.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2015/1/5
Y1 - 2015/1/5
N2 - The koala retrovirus (KoRV), which is transitioning from an exogenous to an endogenous form, has been associated with high mortality in koalas. For other retroviruses, the envelope protein p15E has been considered a candidate for vaccine development. We therefore examined proviral sequence variation of KoRV p15E in a captive Queensland and three wild southern Australian koalas. We generated 163 sequences with intact open reading frames, which grouped into 39 distinct haplotypes. Sixteen distinct haplotypes comprising 139 of the sequences (85%) coded for the same polypeptide. Among the remaining 23 haplotypes, 22 were detected only once among the sequences, and each had 1 or 2 non-synonymous differences from the majority sequence. Several analyses suggested that p15E was under purifying selection. Important epitopes and domains were highly conserved across the p15E sequences and in previously reported exogenous KoRVs. Overall, these results support the potential use of p15E for KoRV vaccine development.
AB - The koala retrovirus (KoRV), which is transitioning from an exogenous to an endogenous form, has been associated with high mortality in koalas. For other retroviruses, the envelope protein p15E has been considered a candidate for vaccine development. We therefore examined proviral sequence variation of KoRV p15E in a captive Queensland and three wild southern Australian koalas. We generated 163 sequences with intact open reading frames, which grouped into 39 distinct haplotypes. Sixteen distinct haplotypes comprising 139 of the sequences (85%) coded for the same polypeptide. Among the remaining 23 haplotypes, 22 were detected only once among the sequences, and each had 1 or 2 non-synonymous differences from the majority sequence. Several analyses suggested that p15E was under purifying selection. Important epitopes and domains were highly conserved across the p15E sequences and in previously reported exogenous KoRVs. Overall, these results support the potential use of p15E for KoRV vaccine development.
KW - Endogenous retroviruses
KW - Epitopes
KW - KoRV
KW - Phascolarctos cinereus
KW - Vaccines
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U2 - 10.1016/j.virol.2014.10.036
DO - 10.1016/j.virol.2014.10.036
M3 - Article
C2 - 25462343
AN - SCOPUS:84912571367
SN - 0042-6822
VL - 475
SP - 28
EP - 36
JO - Virology
JF - Virology
ER -