Goat visna virus: Isolation of a retrovirus related to visna virus of sheep

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Abstract
Summary Choroid plexus (GCP-3) cell cultures were prepared from an adult goat with symptoms of visna. The GCP-3 cell layer had partly fused into large multinucleated giant cells and electronmicrographs showed virus particles morphologically indistinguishable from sheep visna virus (SVV). A virus, designated goat visna virus (GVV), was subsequently purified from the GCP-3 cultures. The virus particles have a density of 1.15 g/ml and a high molecular weight RNA similar in size to that of SVV. A virion-associated DNA polymerase was identified which is stimulated to the same extent as the SVV polymerase by different synthetic RNA and DNA template-primer combinations and which shows the same Mg2+ and Mn2+ stimulation optima. Polypeptide analysis by SDS-PAGE revealed that the virion proteins of GVV and SVV had similar molecular weights. By immuno-diffusion tests it was demonstrated that the major internal proteins of GVV and SVV are related. Consequently, we conclude that GVV should be classified as a retrovirus and that it is closely related to visna virus of sheep.