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Dissecting Host-virus Interaction in Lytic Replication of a Model Herpesvirus
Published on: October 7, 2011
Human foamy virus replication: a pathway distinct from that of retroviruses and hepadnaviruses
S F Yu1, D N Baldwin, S R Gwynn
1Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.
Abstract:
Human foamy virus (HFV) is the prototype of the Spumavirus genus of Retroviridae. In all other retroviruses, the pol gene products, including reverse transcriptase, are synthesized as Gag-Pol fusion proteins and are cleaved to functional enzymes during viral budding or release. In contrast, the Pol protein of HFV is translated from a spliced messenger RNA and lacks Gag domains. Infectious HFV particles contain double-stranded DNA similar in size to full-length provirus, suggesting that reverse transcription has taken place in viral particles before new rounds of infection, reminiscent of hepadnaviruses. These data suggest that foamy viruses possess a replication pathway containing features of both retroviruses and hepadnaviruses but distinct from both.
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