The host genomic environment of the provirus determines the abundance of HTLV-1-infected T-cell clones.

ABSTRACT: Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) persists by driving clonal proliferation of infected T lymphocytes. A high proviral load predisposes to HTLV-1-associated diseases. Yet the reasons for the variation within and between persons in the abundance of HTLV-1-infected clones remain unknown. We devised a high-throughput protocol to map the genomic location and quantify the abundance of > 91,000 unique insertion sites of the provirus from 61 HTLV-1(+) persons and > 2100 sites from in vitro infection. We show that a typical HTLV-1-infected host carries between 500 and 5000 unique insertion sites. We demonstrate that negative selection dominates during chronic infection, favoring establishment of proviruses integrated in transcriptionally silenced DNA: this selection is significantly strong

SUBMITTER: Gillet NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3062313 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature