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Mutations within a putative cysteine loop of the transmembrane protein of an attenuated immunodeficiency-inducing feline leukemia virus variant inhibit envelope protein processing.

ABSTRACT: A replication-defective feline leukemia virus molecular clone, 61B, has been shown to cause immunodeficiency in cats and cytopathicity in T cells after a long latency period when coinfected with a minimally pathogenic helper virus (J. Overbaugh, E. A. Hoover, J. I. Mullins, D. P. W. Burns, L. Rudensey, S. L. Quackenbush, V. Stallard, and P. R. Donahue, Virology 188:558-569, 1992). The long-latency phenotype of 61B has been mapped to four mutations in the extracellular domain of the envelope transmembrane protein, and we report here that these mutations cause a defect in envelope protein processing. Immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrated that the 61B gp85 envelope precursor was produced but that further processing to generate the surface protein (SU/gp70) and the transmembrane protein (TM/p15E) did not occur. The 61B precursor was not expressed on the cell surface and appeared to be retained in the endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi apparatus. Two of the four 61B-specific amino acid changes are located within a putative cysteine loop in a region of TM that is conserved among retroviruses. Introduction of these two amino acid changes into a replication-competent highly cytopathic virus resulted in the production of noninfectious virus that exhibited an envelope-protein-processing defect. This analysis suggests that mutations in a conserved region within a putative cysteine loop affect retroviral envelope protein maturation and viral infectivity.

SUBMITTER: Burns CC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC188879 | biostudies-other | 1995 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Mutations within a putative cysteine loop of the transmembrane protein of an attenuated immunodeficiency-inducing feline leukemia virus variant inhibit envelope protein processing.

Burns C C CC Poss M L ML Thomas E E Overbaugh J J

Journal of virology 19950401 4

A replication-defective feline leukemia virus molecular clone, 61B, has been shown to cause immunodeficiency in cats and cytopathicity in T cells after a long latency period when coinfected with a minimally pathogenic helper virus (J. Overbaugh, E. A. Hoover, J. I. Mullins, D. P. W. Burns, L. Rudensey, S. L. Quackenbush, V. Stallard, and P. R. Donahue, Virology 188:558-569, 1992). The long-latency phenotype of 61B has been mapped to four mutations in the extracellular domain of the envelope tran ...[more]

PMID: 7884859

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Project description:Studies of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) have illustrated the importance of the genotype of the infecting virus in determining disease outcome. In FeLV infections, as in other retroviral infections, it is less clear how virus variants that evolve from the transmitted virus affect pathogenesis. We previously reported an analysis of the genotypic changes that occur in the viral envelope gene (env) in cats infected with a prototype transmissible FeLV clone, 61E (J. Rohn, M. Linenberger, E. Hoover, and J. Overbaugh, J. Virol. 68:2458-2467, 1994). In one cat, each variant (81T) had evolved, in addition to scattered amino acid changes, a four-amino-acid insertion with respect to 61E. This insertion was located at the same site in the extracellular envelope glycoprotein where the immunodeficiency-inducing molecular clone 61C possesses a six-amino-acid insertion critical for its pathogenic phenotype, although the sequences of the insertions were distinct. To determine whether acquisition of the four-amino-acid insertion was associated with a change in the replication or cytopathic properties of the virus, we constructed chimeras encoding 81T env genes in a 61E background. One representative chimeric virus, EET(TE)-109, was highly cytopathic despite the fact that it replicated with delayed kinetics in the feline T-cell line 3201 compared to the parental 61E virus. The phenotype of this virus was also novel compared to other FeLVs, including both the parental virus 61E and the immunodeficiency-inducing variant 61C, because infection of T cells was associated with syncytium formation. Moreover, in single-cycle infection assays, the 81T-109 envelope demonstrated receptor usage properties distinct from those of both 61E and 61C envelope. Thus, these studies demonstrate the evolution of a novel T-cell cytopathic and syncytium-inducing FeLV in the host. The 81T virus will be valuable for dissecting the mechanism of T-cell killing by cytopathic variants in the FeLV model.

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Dataset Information

Mutations within a putative cysteine loop of the transmembrane protein of an attenuated immunodeficiency-inducing feline leukemia virus variant inhibit envelope protein processing.

Publications

Mutations within a putative cysteine loop of the transmembrane protein of an attenuated immunodeficiency-inducing feline leukemia virus variant inhibit envelope protein processing.

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