Disease relevance of pol

• The human foamy or spumaretrovirus (HSRV) is a complex retrovirus that encodes the three retroviral genes gag, pol, and env and, in addition, at least three bel genes [1].
• The gag gene contains conserved splice acceptor and donor sites suggesting that, like human foamy virus, FeFV expresses its pol gene using a spliced mRNA [2].
• SFV was isolated from three baboon subspecies (olive, yellow, and chacma baboons) and sequences from both the pol and the LTR regions of the provirus were amplified by PCR and sequenced [3].

High impact information on pol

• To determine the minimal requirements for the HFV enzymatic activities, defined residues of the reverse transcriptase (RT) and ribo-nuclease H (RNase H) domain of the HFV pol gene were mutated by site-specific PCR mutagenesis [4].
• The human foamy or spumaretrovirus HFV is a complex and exogenous retrovirus that encodes several bel genes besides the three classical retroviral genes gag, pol, and env [5].
• Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the polypurine tract (PPT) usually found at the 5' boundary of the 3'LTR of retroviruses, is duplicated in HSRV at the 3' end of the pol gene, near the gap [6].
• Cis-acting sequences essentially required for marker gene transfer were found to be localized at two sites on the FFV genome: (i) in the 5'-untranslated region and close to the gag ATG and (ii) in the central part of the pol gene [7].
• In addition to the usual retroviral gag, pol and env genes, two open reading frames are present between the env gene and the 3'-LTR, as in the simian spumaviruses, the first being the putative transactivator [2].

Other interactions of pol

• The new isolate, called BFV100 was identified using several techniques: electron microscopy, western blotting, PCR and sequencing of a part of the gag and pol/env genes [8].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of pol

• Foamy viruses form a separate group of retroviruses encoding a pol protein with at least four domains based on comparative sequence alignments [9].

References