| proliferation of endogenous retroviruses in the early stages of a host germ line invasion. | endogenous retroviruses (ervs) comprise 8% of the human genome and are common in all vertebrate genomes. the only retrovirus known to be currently transitioning from exogenous to endogenous form is the koala retrovirus (korv), making koalas (phascolarctos cinereus) ideal for examining the early stages of retroviral endogenization. to distinguish endogenous from exogenous korv proviruses, we isolated koala genomic regions flanking korv integration sites. in three wild southern australian koalas, ... | 2015 | 25261407 |
| sequence variation of koala retrovirus transmembrane protein p15e among koalas from different geographic regions. | the koala retrovirus (korv), which is transitioning from an exogenous to an endogenous form, has been associated with high mortality in koalas. for other retroviruses, the envelope protein p15e has been considered a candidate for vaccine development. we therefore examined proviral sequence variation of korv p15e in a captive queensland and three wild southern australian koalas. we generated 163 sequences with intact open reading frames, which grouped into 39 distinct haplotypes. sixteen distinct ... | 2015 | 25462343 |
| koala retrovirus genotyping analyses reveal a low prevalence of korv-a in victorian koalas and an association with clinical disease. | koala retrovirus (korv) is undergoing endogenization into the genome of koalas in australia, providing an opportunity to assess the effect of retrovirus infection on the health of a population. the prevalence of korv in north-eastern australia (queensland and new south wales) is 100 %, whereas previous preliminary investigations in south-eastern australia (victoria) suggested korv is present at a lower prevalence, although the values have varied widely. here, we describe a large study of free-ra ... | 2017 | 28266284 |