AEGiS-08IAC: Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of a variant immunodeficiency virus isolated from a wild captured chimpanzee.

8th International AIDS Conference

Amsterdam, Netherlands — July 19-24, 1992

Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of a variant immunodeficiency virus isolated from a wild captured chimpanzee.

Int Conf AIDS 1992 Jul 19-24; 8:We60 (abstract no. WeA 1081)
Vanden Haesevelde M, Peeters M, Willems B, Saman E, vander Groen G, Van Heuverswyn H; Innogenetics N.V., Ghent, Belgium.

OBJECTIVE: The immunodeficiency virus, SIVcpz-ant, isolated from a wild captured chimpanzee, was molecular cloned and sequenced. The purpose was to document the genetic diversity exhibited by the two SIVs isolated from chimpanzees and confirm their position within the HIV/SIV family.

METHODS: Primers and nested primers to HIV-1 conserved regions were used in the Polymerase Chain Reaction on cellular DNA from cultured human PBL's infected with the SIVcpz-ant isolate. The amplified products were cloned and their information was sequenced using the dideoxy chain termination technique.

RESULTS: The SIVcpz-ant isolate shows considerable sequence variation when compared with the Gabonese isolate SIVcpz-gab (Huet T. et al., 1990, Nature 345:356-359). The homology level between both chimpanzee isolates varies from 70% for the more conserved genes (POL) to 55% for the more variable parts of the genome (env). The same levels of homology were found when the chimpanzee isolates were compared with different members of the HIV-1 family, as well as with very divergent HIV-1 isolate Ant70 (Vanden Haesevelde et al., 1991, VIIth International Conference on AIDS, Abstracts M.A.1157), whereas the variation within the HIV-1 family is much smaller. Phylogenetic tree analysis based on the alignment of pol and env nucleotide sequences, situates the SIVcpz within the HIV-1 family. However, both SIVcpz isolates do not cluster together, indicating the SIVcpz strains do not form a separate subgroup within the HIV-1 family.

CONCLUSION: The present analysis of the SIVcpz-ant isolate indicates that these chimpanzee isolates belong to the HIV-1 family but are more divergent than the isolates described until now in this family. Since the human isolate Ant70 is also divergent to the same extent within this family, this indicates that the HIV-1 family might be more variable than previously appreciated.

Keywords: AEGIS, Pan troglodytes, SIV, Cloning, Molecular, Sequence Analysis, HIV-1, Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Variation (Genetics), Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Envelope Protein gp120, HIV, Polymerase Chain Reaction, HIV Antibodies, Receptors, HIV, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Animal, Human, genetics, ICA8
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WeA1081