Nucleic acid homology of murine xenotropic type C viruses

Two major subclasses of xenotropic (X-tropic) murine type C viruses can be distinguished by nucleic acid hybridization. The most frequently encountered subclass (MuLV-X-alpha) includes isolates from BALB/c, C57BL/6J, C58/J, AKR/J, CBA/J, and DBA/2J inbred strains and from the Asian feral mouse subspecies Mus musculus molossinus. The other subclass (MuLV-X-beta) consists of viruses isolated from the NIH Swiss and NZB/BINJ strains. Thus, significant polymorphism exists among the endogenous type C virogenes of a single species, Mus musculus. MuLV-X-alpha genes are found in strains that also have endogenous mouse-tropic viruses (either N-tropic, B-tropic, or both), whereas the MuLV-X-beta subclass is restricted to mouse strains from which mouse-tropic viruses have not yet been isolated. The results are consistent with a model which proposes that mouse-tropic endogenous viruses are derived from the MuLV-X-alpha subclass.