Element:CAEV

Description Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) is a lentivirus closely related to Visna lentiviruses. This retrovirus was originally reported from a case of leuko-encephalitis described in lambs (Cork et al. 1974; Crawford et al. 1980; Adams et al. 1980). CAEV is the etiologic agent of an inflammatory disease that occurs in domestic goats and primarily characterized by chronic arthritis and mastitis in adults, and leukoencephalomyelitis in young animals (see review Narayan et al. 1993). The genomic structure of CAEV is 9.2 Kb in size including LTRs of approximately 534 nt (pro 5´LTR-R/U5 and pro 3´LTR-U3/R of 163 and 371 nt). The internal region of this retrovirus displays a Primer Binding Site (PBS) complementary to a tRNALys, Open Reading Frames (ORFs) for gag, pol, and env genes characteristic of retroviruses, tat and rev and orfq (vif or sor), which are three accessory genes common in other lentiviruses, an orfw also displayed but corrupted in other sheep lentiviruses, and a Polypurine Tract (PPT) adjacent to the 3´LTR (Sherman et al. 1986; Saltarelli et al. 1990; Kalinski et al. 1991; Saltarelli et al. 1993; Kalinski et al. 1994; Saltarelli et al. 1994; Wain-Hobson et al. 1995). As other non-primate lentiviruses, CAEV displays between the RNase H and INT domains, an ORF coding for a dUTPase similar to that observed in betaretroviruses, N-terminal to the PR domain (Elder et al. 1992; Payne and Elder 2001 and references therein). 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: M33677 Clade: Ovine/Caprine lentiviruses Cluster or genus: Lentivirus Branch or class: Class 2 Family: Retroviridae System: LTR retroelements Host: Explore the Tree Life Project Capra pyrenaica Image, copyright of Jorge Aguilar Bosch, by courtesy of Margarita Lopez, SESBE Browse all elements