The isolation of an endogenous retrovirus from the New World rodent Dasyprocta punctata (agouti).

Abstract

Abstract An endogenous type C virus from the New World rodent, agouti ( Dasyprocta punctata ) has been isolated by cocultivating agouti tissue with the human lung tumor cell line, A549. The virus isolate, designated DPC-1, possesses the morphologic properties of a typical type C virus and contains viral polymerase and structural (p30) protein antigenically related to but distinct from known type C viral proteins. Nucleic acid hybridization studies demonstrate that DPC-1 is an endogenous virus of the agouti and is present in multiple copies (75–100 per haploid genome) in agouti cellular DNA. Low stringency hybridization by hydroxyapatite detected distantly related viral sequences in the DNA of other New World rodent species, such as the guinea pig, as well as Old World rodent species, such as mice and hamsters. DPC-1 is therefore distantly related to the type C viruses of Old World rodents and, has probably evolved from a common ancestral rodent virus. DPC-1 has been successfully transmitted in vitro to both human and cat cells; it is therefore the first transmissible type C virus isolated from a New World rodent species and should provide a useful perspective with which to study the numerous type C isolates from laboratory rodents.