Isolation and characterization of simian immunodeficiency virus from mandrills in Africa and its relationship to other human and simian immunodeficiency viruses

Abstract

Two isolates of simian retrovirus related to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were obtained from apparently healthy mandrills, Papio (Mandrillus) sphinx, in western equatorial Africa. This virus, designated SIVMND (simian immunodeficiency virus from mandrills), appeared morphologically similar to HIV by electron microscopy, showed Mg2-dependent reverse transcriptase activity, and induced cytopathic effect in human CD4-positive cells. Western blotting (immunoblotting) analyses revealed that the gag and pol products of SIVMND showed cross-reactivity with those of known HIVs and SIVs. Molecular clones covering full-length viral DNA were obtained from closed circular extrachromosomal DNA of SIVMND-infected cells. By clone-on-clone hybridization with known retroviruses of the HIV and SIV groups, SIVMND showed similar cross-hybridization with HIV-1, HIV-2, SIVAGM (African green monkey-derived SIV), and SIVMAC (rhesus macaque-derived SIV) in the gag and pol regions only at low stringency but not at high stringency, a result indicating that SIVMND is a new member of the HIV-SIV group. The existence of distinct SIVs in different monkey species suggest that recent interspecies transfer of HIV-SIV is unlikely in nature.

Viral Diseases of Nonhuman Primates

“…Western red colobus (SIVwrcPbb; Piliocolobus badius badius and SIVwrcPbt; P. badius temminckii) and olive colobus (SIVolc; Procolobus verus) isolates align with the L'Hoest lineage when examining homology across the entire viral genome although certain regions of the genome such as the gag and 5' end of the pol sequences cluster with the Colobus lineage (Locatelli et al, 2008;Liegeois et al, 2009). SIVmnd-1 isolated from mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) residing in central and southern Gabon also clusters with the L'Hoest lineage (Tsujimoto et al, 1988;Souquiere et al, 2001). Interestingly, a second, highly divergent isolate (SIVmnd-2) has been identified in mandrills from northern and western Gabon.…”

Construction of the Chimeric Reverse Transcriptase of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Sensitive to Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor

“…Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is the closest relative to HIV-1 and HIV-2, and these viruses are members of the lentivirus subfamily of retroviruses (5,10). After the initial description of SIVMAC from a rhesus macaque that exhibited AIDS-like disease (8), a number of SIVs were isolated; SIVagm from African green monkeys (21), SIVmnd from mandrills (31), SIVsmm from sooty mangabeys (11) and so on.…”

Molecular evidence for deep phylogenetic divergence in Mandrillus sphinx

“…Recent virological investigations reveal that mandrills are infected with two genetically and antigenically distinct but related lentiviruses: simian immune deficiency virus (SIVmnd) type-1 and SIVmnd type-2 (Tsujimoto et al 1988;Souquière et al 2001;Takehisa et al 2001). The geographic distributions of these two viral types is disjunct, being apparently separated by the Ogooué River in Gabon.…”