Element:MPMV

Description Mason-Pfizer Monkey Virus (MPMV) is a D-type retrovirus originally described from a mammary tumor in a rhesus monkey female (Chopra and Mason 1970). This retrovirus belongs to the genus Betaretrovirus, which comprises both B- and D-type retroviruses. Interestingly, D-type betaretroviruses present a common surface receptor also used by the baboon and cat endogenous C-type gammaretroviruses (BaEVM, RD114), cellular infection by any of them can interfere with other D-type members, and also with BaEVM and RD114 (Chatterjee and Hunter 1980; Sommerfelt and Weiss 1990 ). This evidence seems to be related with the high similarity displayed between env polyproteins encoded by gammaretroviruses and D-type betaretroviruses, indicating that betaretroviruses and gammaretroviruses may have been involved in an ancient recombinatorial event (Sonigo et al 1986; Fauquet et al. 2005) or that they share a common ancestor (see env tree in section "phylogenies"). The genomic structure of MPMV is 8.5 Kb size, including pro-5´LTR-"R/U5 and pro-3´LTR-U3/R of 140-700 and 973 nt, respectively. The internal region of this retrovirus displays a Primer Binding Site (PBS) complementary to a tRNALys, Open Reading Frames (ORFs) for gag, dut/pro, pol, and env genes, a Polypurine Tract (PPT), adjacent to the 3´LTR (Sonigo et al. 1986; Petropoulos 1997; Elder et al. 1992; Payne and Elder 2001). We have also found that MPMV also presents a putative accessory gene Orf-x that is common among many other betaretroviruses, and that was originally described in JSRV betaretroviruses (Bai et al. 1999; Rosati et al. 2000). Also, a three-copy tandem of an ORF similar to the accessory gene Sorf displayed in each LTR of the SRV-1 retrovirus. Structure Figure not to scale. If present, long terminal repeats (LTRs) have been highlighted in blue. Amino acid motifs noted with lines indicate the conserved residues in each protein domain, abbreviations below mean: MA=matrix PR=protease DU or DUT=dUTPase TM=transmembrane TAV or IBMP=transactivator/viroplasmin or inclusion body matrix protein CA=capsid RT=reverse transcriptase INT=Integrase CHR=chromodomain NC=nucleocapsid RH=RNaseH SU=surface MOV=movement protein PPT=polypurine tract PBS=primer binding site ATF=aphid transmission factor VAP=virion associated protein Related literature Retroviruses. (Coffin, Hugges and Varmus 1997)

Genbank accession: NC_001550 Clade: Undetermined Cluster or genus: Betaretrovirus Branch or class: Class 2 Family: Retroviridae System: LTR retroelements Host: Explore the Tree Life Project Macaca mulatta Image, courtesy of David Stang, BayScience Foundation Browse all elements