Abstract
Naturally occurring antigenic variants of visna virus isolated from two persistently infected sheep have been compared using RNAase T1 fingerprint analysis of the viral RNAs. All the viruses examined have oligonucleotide changes in the 3′-terminal region of the viral genome and many of the alterations are common among the variants of both sheep. There is progressive accumulation of point mutations in the 3′-terminal region of antigenically altered viruses isolated from persistently infected animals. In addition, antigenic variants isolated independently from another sheep contain the same altered oligonucleotides; the nucleotide sequences of these oligonucleotides are identical. These data strongly suggest that the alterations observed in the nucleotide sequence of the variants are related to the change in their antigenic character.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 415-434 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Journal of molecular biology |
Volume | 158 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 5 1982 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Structural Biology
- Molecular Biology