IDENTIFICATION AND SUBCELLULAR-LOCALIZATION OF THE Q-GENE PRODUCT OF VISNA VIRUS

The genome of the sheep visna lentivirus contains an open reading frame, Q, which has a coding potential of 230 amino acid residues. This paper reports the identification and the subcellular localization of the Q ORF-encoded protein detected in lysates of visna virus-infected sheep choroid plexus cells. Sera from sheep either experimentally or naturally infected with visna virus reacted with the bacterially synthesized Q protein indicating that the in vivo expressed Q product is immunogenic. Antibodies raised against a synthetic N-terminal peptide, reacted with either the bacterial Q or the in vitro translated Q protein as well as with the Q protein expressed during cellular infection. This 29 kDa protein is detectable late in the lytic viral cycle, i.e., 72 hr postinfection, and this expression correlates with the late transcription of its 4.8-kb mRNA. These results provide evidence for the first time that the Q ORF is a late gene of visna virus and that the Q protein is located in the cytosol compartment, without evidence of accumulation at the cell membrane, or in cell-free virion particles. © 1992.