Nucleotide sequence analysis of feline immunodeficiency virus: genome organization and relationship to other...

We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of an infectious proviral molecular clone (FIV-14) of the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). FIV-14 has a genome organization similar in complexity to other lentiviruses. In addition to three large open reading frames representing the gag, pol, and env genes, at least four small open reading frames are present in the pol-env intergenic, env, and env-3' long terminal repeat regions. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence alignments of the FIV coding sequences with analogous sequences of other lentiviruses revealed significant identities only in the gag and pol genes. Phylogenetic tree analyses of gag and pol gene-encoded protein sequences demonstrate that FIV is more closely related to the ungulate lentiviruses, equine infectious anemia virus and visna virus, than to the primate lentiviruses, human and simian immunodeficiency viruses.