Conserved Region of Mammalian Retrovirus RNA

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Abstract
The viral RNA of various mammalian retroviruses contain highly conserved sequences close to their 3'' ends, as demonstrated by interviral molecular hybridization between fractionated viral complementary DNA (cDNA) and RNA. cDNA near the 3'' end (cDNA3'') from a rat virus (RPL strain) was fractionated by size and mixed with mouse virus RNA (Rauscher leukemia virus). No hybridization occurred with total cDNA (cNDAtotal), in agreement with previous results, but a cross-reacting sequence was found with the fractionated cDNA3''. The sequences between 50-400 nucleotides from the 3'' terminus of heteropolymeric RNA were most hybridizable. The rat viral cDNA3'' hybridized with mouse virus RNA more extensively than with RNA of remotely related retroviruses. The related viral sequence of the rodent viruses (mouse and rat) showed as much divergence in heteroduplex, thermal denaturation profiles as did the unique sequence DNA of these 2 rodents. Over a period of time, rodent viruses have apparently preserved a sequence with changes correlated to phylogenetic distance of hosts. The cross-reacting sequence of replication-competent retroviruses was conserved even in the genome of the replication-defective sarcoma virus and was also located in these genomes near the 3'' end of 30S RNA. A fraction of RD114 cDNA3'', corresponding to the conserved region, cross-hybridized extensively with RNA of a baboon endogenous virus (M7). Fractions of similar size prepared from cDNA3'' of MPMV [Mason-Pfizer monkey virus], a primate type D virus, hybridized with M7 RNA to a lesser extent. Hybridization was not observed between MPMV and M7 if total cDNA were incubated with viral RNA. The degree of cross-reaction of the shared sequence appeared to be influenced by viral ancestral relatedness and host cell phylogenetic relationships. The strikingly high extent of cross-reaction at the conserved region between rodent viruses and simian sarcoma virus and between baboon virus and RD114 virus may reflect ancestral relatedness of the viruses. Slight cross-reaction at the site between type B and C viruses of rodents (mouse mammary tumor virus and RPL virus, 58-2T) or type C and D viruses of primates (M7, RD114 and MPMV) may have arisen at the conserved region through a mechanism that depends more on the phylogenetic relatedness of the host cells than on the viral type or origin. Determining the sequence of the conserved region may help elucidate this mechanism. The conserved sequence in retroviruses described here may be an important functional unit for the life cycle of many retroviruses.