A Novel, Fully Spliced, Accessory Gene in Equine Lentivirus with Distinct Rev-Responsive Element.

ABSTRACT: All lentiviruses encode the accessory protein Rev, whose main biological function is to mediate the nuclear export of unspliced and incompletely spliced viral transcripts by binding to a viral cis-acting element (termed the Rev-responsive element, RRE) within the env-encoding region. Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a member of the lentivirus genus in the Retroviridae family and is considered an important model for the study of lentivirus pathogenesis. Here, we identified a novel transcript from the EIAV genome that encoded a viral protein, named Mat, with an unknown function. The transcript mat was fully spliced and comprised parts of the coding regions of MA and TM. Interestingly, the expression of Mat depended on Rev and the chromosome region maintenance 1 (CRM1) pathway.

SUBMITTER: Zhang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9517694 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature