Detection of Genetic Diversity Among Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus Population by Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism Analysis

Abstract

Serial virus specimens rescued from rabbits, experimentally infected with bovine immunodeficiency (BIV) strain R29, were monitored for changes in quasispecies population, using the single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. The generation of characteristic SSCP patterns enables the rapid differentiation of BIV variants derived from the conserved part on the env region of the BIV genome, reducing the need for expensive and time-consuming direct sequencing analyses. Our results showed genetic polymorphism among a number of sampled BIV population in experimentally infected rabbits. At least three SSCP patterns (BIV quasispecies) were detected. The SSCP analysis allows for an easy, sensitive, and rapid screening of genetic variants of the virus and the assessment of variation at a number of tissue target sites. These variations may relate to cell-type targets and/or disease progression, and could be significant to our understanding of lentiviral pathogenesis.

The molecular biology of bovine immunodeficiency virus: a comparison with other lentiviruses

“…This is consistent with the results of other observations that genomic comparisons of a portion (183 bp) of the pol gene from various BIV isolates show non-conservative amino acid changes (Cooper et al, 1999). Moreover, an intra-and inter-individual env variation is observed in BIV R-29-infected rabbits (Kalvatchev et al, 2000), indicating further that the potential may exist for the development of BIV pol and env quasispecies. However, this interpretation needs to be taken with caution since weak viral replication rates in the presence of neutralizing antibodies were accompanied by an absence of antigenic variation in infected cattle (Carpenter et al, 2000).…”

“…No clinical symptoms were observed in BIV-infected animals during all these studies. In contrast, other studies (Kalvatchev et al, 1995(Kalvatchev et al, , 1998(Kalvatchev et al, , 2000Walder et al, 2001) showed the development of clinical signs of disease (anorexia, weight loss, muscular wasting, diarrhea, hypoalgesia, torticollis, recurrent T-and B-cell dysfunctions, lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly) in several rabbits infected with BIV R-29, whereas the others remained asymptomatic.…”

Genetic Polymorphism of the Chemokine Co-Receptors CCR5, CXCR4 and CCR2 in Bulgarians Living with HIV

“…Similarly to other retroviral infections, the intensive research on HIV-replication dynamics in vivo during the last years has clearly defi ned both viral and human/host factors infl uencing transmission, course, progression and outcome of infection (6,11).…”

Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) Analysis: A Rapid and Sensitive Method for Detection of Genetic Diversity Among Virus Population

“…Analyses with SSCP have been used to demonstrate genomic variation between different viruses and reveal associations of viral genotypes with specific phenotypes (1,11,15,18,23). In this paper we illustrate the use of the SSCP technique for mutation screening in the different viral genomes and discuss the advantages and limits of the method for analysis of genetic diversity among virus population.…”