scholarly journals Characterization of germline porcine endogenous retroviruses from Large White pig

2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (8) ◽  
pp. 2421-2428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Scobie ◽  
Samantha Taylor ◽  
Nicola A. Logan ◽  
Sharon Meikle ◽  
David Onions ◽  
...  

Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) are of concern when the microbiological safety aspects of xenotransplantation are considered. Four unique isolates of PERV B have been identified previously from a lambda library constructed from genomic DNA from a Large White pig. This study shows that none of these isolates are replication competent when transfected into permissive human or pig cells in vitro, and the removal of flanking genomic sequences does not confer a human tropic replication competent (HTRC) phenotype on these PERV proviruses. Analysis of the envelope sequences revealed that PERV B demonstrated high similarity to the envelope sequences derived from replication-competent PERV, indicating that lack of replication competence does not appear to be attributable to this region of the provirus. These data complement recent findings that HTRC PERV are recombinants between the PERV A and PERV C subgroups, and that these recombinants are not present in the germline of miniature swine. Together, these results indicate that these individual PERV B proviruses are unlikely to give rise to HTRC PERV.

2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 2502-2509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Scobie ◽  
Samantha Taylor ◽  
James C. Wood ◽  
Kristen M. Suling ◽  
Gary Quinn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The potential transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) has raised concern in the development of porcine xenotransplantation products. Our previous studies have resulted in the identification of animals within a research herd of inbred miniature swine that lack the capacity to transmit PERV to human cells in vitro. In contrast, other animals were capable of PERV transmission. The PERVs that were transmitted to human cells are recombinants between PERV-A and PERV-C in the post-VRA region of the envelope (B. A. Oldmixon, J. C. Wood, T. A. Ericsson, C. A. Wilson, M. E. White-Scharf, G. Andersson, J. L. Greenstein, H. J. Schuurman, and C. Patience, J. Virol. 76:3045-3048, 2002); these viruses we term PERV-A/C. This observation prompted us to determine whether these human-tropic replication-competent (HTRC) PERV-A/C recombinants were present in the genomic DNA of these miniature swine. Genomic DNA libraries were generated from one miniature swine that transmitted HTRC PERV as well as from one miniature swine that did not transmit HTRC PERV. HTRC PERV-A/C proviruses were not identified in the germ line DNAs of these pigs by using genomic mapping. Similarly, although PERV-A loci were identified in both libraries that possessed long env open reading frames, the Env proteins encoded by these loci were nonfunctional according to pseudotype assays. In the absence of a germ line source for HTRC PERV, further studies are warranted to assess the mechanisms by which HTRC PERV can be generated. Once identified, it may prove possible to generate animals with further reduced potential to produce HTRC PERV.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 2714-2720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Niebert ◽  
Claire Rogel-Gaillard ◽  
Patrick Chardon ◽  
Ralf R. Tönjes

ABSTRACT Vertically transmitted endogenous retroviruses pose an infectious risk in the course of pig-to-human transplantation of cells, tissues, and organs. Two classes of polytropic type C porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) productively infect human cells in vitro. The cloning and characterization of replication-competent PERV-B sequences from infected human cells (F. Czauderna, N. Fischer, K. Boller, R. Kurth, and R. R. Tönjes, J. Virol. 74:4028-4038, 2000) as well as the cloning of functional PERV-A and -B sequences from porcine cell line PK15 (U. Krach, N. Fischer, F. Czauderna, and R. R. Tönjes, J. Virol. 75:5465-5472, 2001) have been previously described. Here we report the isolation of four full-length proviral sequences from a porcine bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library that comprises chromosomally assigned PERV. Clones Bac-PERV-A(130A12) and Bac-PERV-A(151B10) map to pig chromosome 1 and demonstrate close homology to PK15-PERV-A(58) in env and to PERV-MSL in long terminal repeat (LTR), gag, and pro/pol sequences. Clone Bac-PERV-A(463H12) is located on pig chromosome 3 and demonstrates close homology to PK15-PERV-A(58) in env and to 293-PERV-B(43) in LTR, gag, and pro/pol (Czauderna et al.; R. R. Tönjes, F. Czauderna, N. Fischer, U. Krach, K. Boller, P. Chardon, C. Rogel-Gailard, M. Niebert, G. Scheef, A. Werner, and R. Kurth, Transplant Proc. 32:1158-1161, 2000). Clone Bac-PERV-B(192B9) is located on pig chromosome 7 in the swine leukocyte antigen region and is highly homologous with but distinct from the previously described functional clone 293-PERV-B(43) and bears the number of repeats initially observed in the LTRs of clone 293-PERV-A(42) (Czauderna et al.; Krach et al.). Clones Bac-PERV-A(130A12), Bac-PERV-A(151B10), and Bac-PERV-A(463H12) were replication competent upon transfection into susceptible 293 and HeLa cells. Bac-PERV-B(192B9), however, bears two stop codons in pro/pol preventing this clone from being replication competent in some individual pigs, but initial screenings indicate that this provirus might be intact in others. The data suggest that the porcine genome harbors a limited number of infectious PERV sequences, allowing for specific screening in different pig breeds.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (24) ◽  
pp. 12252-12265 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Herring ◽  
G. Quinn ◽  
R. Bower ◽  
N. Parsons ◽  
N. A. Logan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Xenotransplantation may bridge the widening gap between the shortage of donor organs and the increasing number of patients waiting for transplantation. However, a major safety issue is the potential cross-species transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV). This problem could be resolved if it is possible to produce pigs that do not contain replication-competent copies of this virus. In order to determine the feasibility of this, we have determined the number of potentially replication-competent full-length PERV proviruses and obtained data on their integration sites within the porcine genome. We have screened genomic DNA libraries from a Large White pig for potentially intact proviruses. We identified six unique PERV B proviruses that were apparently intact in all three genes, while the majority of isolated proviruses were defective in one or more genes. No intact PERV A proviruses were found in this pig, despite the identification of multiple defective A proviruses. Genotyping of 30 unrelated pigs for these unique proviruses showed a heterogeneous distribution. Two proviruses were uncommon, present in 7 of 30 and 3 of 30 pigs, while three were each present in 24 of 30 pigs, and one was present in 30 of 30 animals examined. Our data indicate that fewPERV proviruses in Large White pigs are capable of productive infection and suggest that many could be removed by selective breeding. Further studies are required to determine if all potentially functional proviruses could be removed by breeding or whether gene knockout techniques will be required to remove the residuum.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (20) ◽  
pp. 10258-10261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Preuss ◽  
Nicole Fischer ◽  
Klaus Boller ◽  
Ralf R. Tönjes

ABSTRACT Xenotransplantation of pig organs is complicated by the existence of polytropic replication-competent porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) capable of infecting human cells. The potential for recombination between ecotropic PERV-C and human-tropic PERV-A and PERV-B adds another level of infectious risk. Proviral PERV-C were characterized in MAX-T cells derived from d/d haplotype miniature swine. Three proviruses were cloned from a genomic library. Clone PERV-C(1312) generated infectious particles after transfection into porcine ST-IOWA cells. Electron microscopy revealed the same morphologies of virions in MAX-T cells and in ST-IOWA cells infected with cell-free PERV-C(1312) particles, indicating that MAX-T cells harbor one functional PERV-C provirus.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Quinn ◽  
James Wood ◽  
Kristen Suling ◽  
Scott Arn ◽  
David H. Sachs ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The identification of animals in an inbred miniature swine herd that consistently fail to produce replication- competent humantropic porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) has prompted studies on the biology of PERV in transmitter and nontransmitter animals. We analyzed PERV RNA transcript profiles in a family of inbred miniature swine (SLAd/d haplotype) in which individual members differed in their capacity to generate humantropic and ecotropic (i.e., pigtropic) virus. We identified unique HaeIII and HpaII gag restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profiles resulting from single nucleotide polymorphisms in blood cells; these were found only in animals that produced humantropic PERV. These HaeIII and HpaII gag RFLP profiles proved to be components of humantropic PERV as they were transmitted to 293 human target cells in vitro. The humantropic HaeIII and HpaII gag RFLP genotypes in the family of study were not present in other miniature swine in the herd that produced humantropic PERV, indicating that these RFLP profiles relate specifically to this family's lineage.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 3045-3048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Oldmixon ◽  
James C. Wood ◽  
Thomas A. Ericsson ◽  
Carolyn A. Wilson ◽  
Mary E. White-Scharf ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Here we report the identification of inbred miniature swine that failed to produce human-tropic replication-competent porcine endogenous retroviruses (HTRC PERVs), using in vitro coculture assays. When HTRC PERVs were isolated from transmitting animals, all were recombinant viruses, with the receptor-binding domain of PERV-A combining with PERV-C-related sequences.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 4028-4038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Czauderna ◽  
Nicole Fischer ◽  
Klaus Boller ◽  
Reinhard Kurth ◽  
Ralf R. Tönjes

ABSTRACT The use of pig xenografts is being considered to alleviate the shortage of allogeneic organs for transplantation. In addition to the problems overcoming immunological and physiological barriers, the existence of numerous porcine microorganisms poses the risk of initiating a xenozoonosis. Recently, different classes of type C porcine endogenous retoviruses (PERV) which are infectious for human cells in vitro have been partially described. We therefore examined whether completely intact proviruses exist that produce infectious and replication-competent virions. Several proviral PERV sequences were cloned and characterized. One molecular PERV class B clone, PERV-B(43), generated infectious particles after transfection into human 293 cells. A second clone, PERV-B(33), which was highly homologous to PERV-B(43), showed a G-to-A mutation in the first start codon (Met to Ile) of the env gene, preventing this provirus from replicating. However, a genetic recombinant, PERV-B(33)/ATG, carrying a restoredenv start codon, became infectious and could be serially passaged on 293 cells similar to virus clone PERV-B(43). PERV protein expression was detected 24 to 48 h posttransfection (p.t.) using cross-reacting antiserum, and reverse transcriptase activity was found at 12 to 14 days p.t. The transcriptional start and stop sites as well as the splice donor and splice acceptor sites of PERV mRNA were mapped, yielding a subgenomic env transcript of 3.1 kb. PERV-B(33) and PERV-B(43) differ in the number of copies of a 39-bp segment in the U3 region of the long terminal repeat. Strategies to identify and to specifically suppress or eliminate those proviruses from the pig genome might help in the production of PERV-free animals.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (20) ◽  
pp. 11268-11273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Klymiuk ◽  
Mathias Müller ◽  
Gottfried Brem ◽  
Bernhard Aigner

ABSTRACT Endogenous retrovirus (ERV) sequences have been found in all mammals. In vitro and in vivo experiments revealed ERV activation and cross-species infection in several species. Sheep (Ovis aries) are used for various biotechnological purposes; however, they have not yet been comprehensively screened for ERV sequences. Therefore, the aim of the study was to classify the ERV sequences in the ovine genome (OERV) by analyzing the retroviral pro-pol sequences. Three OERV β families and nine OERV γ families were revealed. Novel open reading frames (ORF) in the amplified proviral fragment were found in one OERV β family and two OERV γ families. Hybrid OERV produced by putative recombination events were not detected. Quantitative analysis of the OERV sequences in the ovine genome revealed no relevant variations in the endogenous retroviral loads of different breeds. Expression analysis of different tissues from fetal and pregnant sheep detected mRNA from both gammaretrovirus families, showing ORF fragments. Thus, the release of retroviruses from sheep cells cannot be excluded.


2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph D. Hector ◽  
Sharon Meikle ◽  
Louise Grant ◽  
Robert A. Wilkinson ◽  
Jay A. Fishman ◽  
...  

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