KSHV strains: the origins and global spread of the virus. NLM AIDSLINE Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

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KSHV strains: the origins and global spread of the virus.

Semin Cancer Biol. 1999 Jun;9(3):187-99. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/99276347
Hayward GS; Molecular Virology Laboratories, Departments of Oncology, and; Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, The Johns Hopkins School of; Medicine, 725 N. Wolfe Street, WBSB 317, Baltimore, MD 21205,; USA.

Abstract: Nucleotide sequence analysis at five distinct loci across the 140, 000 bp genomes of more than 60 KSHV samples from KS and PEL tumors from North America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific revealed that they cluster into four major subtypes (A, B, C and D) that have close associations with the geographic and ethnic background of the patients. In particular, the ORF-K1 protein subtypes encoded at the extreme LHS of the genome display up to 30% amino acid variability resulting from 85% non-synonymous nucleotide substitution rates. In addition, two alternative highly diverged forms of the complex spliced ORF-K15 gene (P or M) map at the extreme RHS of the genome and are essentially unlinked to the ORF-K1 genotypes. We conclude that: (1) KSHV is an ancient human virus with several major subtypes that reflect the migrationary divergence of modern human populations over the past 35,000-60,000 years; (2) the novel immunoglobulin receptor-like signal transducing protein ORF-K1 is subject to unusually strong biological selective pressures; and (3) a minority of KSHV genomes have undergone recombination events with a related virus producing two different alleles of the ORF-K15 latency membrane protein. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.
Keywords: JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW REVIEW, TUTORIAL Alleles Amino Acid Sequence Evolution Genome, Viral Herpesvirus, Kaposi Sarcoma-Associated/*GENETICS Human Molecular Sequence Data Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. Viral Proteins/CHEMISTRYKWDjournalarticlereviewreview,tutorialallelesaminoacidsequenceevolutiongenome,viralherpesvirus,kaposisarcoma-associated/KWDgeneticshumanmolecularsequencedatasupport,uKWDsKWDgov't,pKWDhKWDsKWDviralproteins/chemistry
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Copyright © 1999 - National Library of Medicine. Reproduced under license with the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.

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