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Journal of Virology, July 2002, p. 7094-7102, Vol. 76, No. 14
0022-538X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.76.14.7094-7102.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Novel Endogenous Retrovirus in Rabbits Previously Reported as Human Retrovirus 5

David J. Griffiths,1* Cécile Voisset,1 Patrick J. W. Venables,2 and Robin A. Weiss1

Wohl Virion Centre, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, University College London, London W1T 4JF,1 Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College School of Medicine, London W6 8LH, United Kingdom2

Received 8 February 2002/ Accepted 17 April 2002

Human retrovirus 5 (HRV-5) represented a fragment of a novel retrovirus sequence identified in human RNA and DNA preparations. In this study, the genome of HRV-5 was cloned and sequenced and integration sites were analyzed. Using PCR and Southern hybridization, we showed that HRV-5 is not integrated into human DNA. A survey of other species revealed that HRV-5 is present in the genomic DNA of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and belongs to an endogenous retrovirus family found in rabbits. The presence of rabbit sequences flanking HRV-5 proviruses in human DNA extracts suggested that rabbit DNA was present in our human extracts, and this was confirmed by PCR analysis that revealed the presence of rabbit mitochondrial DNA sequences in four of five human DNA preparations tested. The origin of the rabbit DNA and HRV-5 in human DNA preparations remains unclear, but laboratory contamination cannot explain the preferential detection of HRV-5 in inflammatory diseases and lymphomas reported previously. This is the first description of a retrovirus genome in rabbits, and sequence analysis shows that it is related to but distinct from A-type retroelements of mice and other rodents. The species distribution of HRV-5 is restricted to rabbits; other species, including other members of the order Lagomorpha, do not contain this sequence. Analysis of HRV-5 expression by Northern hybridization and reverse transcriptase PCR indicates that the virus is transcribed at a low level in many rabbit tissues. In light of these findings we propose that the sequence previously designated HRV-5 should now be denoted RERV-H (for rabbit endogenous retrovirus H).

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Wohl Virion Centre, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, University College London, 46 Cleveland St., London W1T 4JF, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 20 7679 9560. Fax: 44 20 7679 9555. E-mail: d.j.griffiths{at}ucl.ac.uk.

Journal of Virology, July 2002, p. 7094-7102, Vol. 76, No. 14
0022-538X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.76.14.7094-7102.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Voisset, C., Weiss, R. A., Griffiths, D. J. (2008). Human RNA "Rumor" Viruses: the Search for Novel Human Retroviruses in Chronic Disease. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72: 157-196 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Fan, H. (2007). A new human retrovirus associated with prostate cancer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 1449-1450 [Full Text]  
  • Voisset, C., Myers, R. E., Carne, A., Kellam, P., Griffiths, D. J. (2003). Rabbit endogenous retrovirus-H encodes a functional protease. J. Gen. Virol. 84: 215-225 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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