An active foamy virus integrase is required for virus replication.

Foamy viruses (FVs) make use of a replication strategy which is unique among retroviruses and shows analogies to hepadnaviruses. The presence of an integrase (IN) and obligate provirus integration distinguish retroviruses from hepadnaviruses. To clarify whether a functional IN is required for FV replication, a mutant in the highly conserved DD35E motif of the active centre was analysed. This mutant was found to be able to express Gag and Pol protein precursors and cleavage products and to generate and deliver cDNA. However, this mutant was replication-deficient. The junctions of individual foamy proviruses with cellular DNA were sequenced. The findings suggest that FV integration is asymmetrical, because the proviruses started with what is believed to be the U3 end of the free linear DNA to generate the conventional TG dinucleotide, while apparently two nucleotides from the U5 end were cleaved to create the complementary CA dinucleotide. Alignment of known FV genome sequences indicated that this mechanism of integration is not restricted to the two FV isolates from which integrates were studied, but appears to be a common feature of this retrovirus subfamily. In conclusion, with respect to the necessity of a functionally active IN for virus replication FVs behave like other retroviruses; their mechanism of integration, however, is probably unique.

Parallel short forms for the Boston Naming Test: psychometric properties and norms for older adults.

Four 15-item and two 30-item short forms for the Boston Naming Test were validated using 108 non-neurological community-dwelling adults, ages 57-85. All forms were administered to all participants (counterbalanced), with no effect of administration sequence on any score. An age effect emerged (Multiple R = .28, p< or =.01). No effects for education or gender were found, nor were there any interactions (p> or = .10). Descriptive data are stratified by age group. Reliability and validity for each form were demonstrated in several ways. These short forms should be very useful as screening instruments and/or as alternate forms for the BNT in test-retest clinical protocols, pre-post experimental designs, and longitudinal research.

Carboxy-terminal cleavage of the human foamy virus Gag precursor molecule is an essential step in the viral life cycle.

Foamy viruses (FVs) express the Gag protein as a precursor with a molecular mass of 74 kDa (pr74) from which a 70-kDa protein (p70) is cleaved by the viral protease. To gain a better understanding of FV Gag protein processing and function, we have generated and analyzed mutants in the C-terminal gag region of an infectious molecular clone. Our results show that p70 is an N-terminal cleavage product of pr74. However, we were unable to identify a p4 molecule. A virus mutant expressing p70 only was found to be replication competent, albeit at very low titers compared to those of wild-type virus. A strong tendency to synthesize and cleave a pr74 molecule was deduced from the occurrence of revertants upon transfection of this mutant. Substitution of the p6gag domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 for the p4 domain of FV resulted in a stable chimeric virus which replicated to titers 10 times lower than those of wild-type virus. FV Gag protein was found to be phosphorylated at serine residues. Mutagenesis of serines conserved in the p4 domain had no influence on viral replication in cell culture. The p70/p74 Gag cleavage was found to be required for viral infectivity, since mutagenesis of the putative cleavage site led to replication-incompetent virus. Interestingly, the cleavage site mutants were defective in the intracellular cDNA synthesis of virion DNA, which indicates that correct FV particle formation and the generation of virion DNA are functionally linked.

Expression of human foamy virus reverse transcriptase involves a spliced pol mRNA.

In human foamy virus (HFV) the reverse transcriptase is expressed independently of the Gag protein as a 127-kDa Pol precursor molecule. Evaluating the mechanism of Pol expression we identified a spliced mRNA which uses the main 5' splice donor and a splice acceptor site located in the gag gene. The significance of this spliced transcript for HFV Pol expression was studied by constructing a virus with a mutated splice acceptor site. This virus was unable to express detectable Pol proteins after transient transfection. Replication of the mutant was studied by a sensitive assay based on HFV transactivator-stimulated expression of an integrated lacZ gene under control of the HFV long terminal repeat. Whereas in the first 2 weeks after transfection the mutant replicated 3 to 5 order of magnitude less well than wild-type virus, extracellular titers obtained thereafter were similar to those of wild-type virus. This increase in replication competence was accompanied by a reversion of the mutated splice acceptor site. The results underlined the importance of the spliced pol transcript for HFV replication and pointed to a second mechanism of Pol expression. Indicator gene assays suggest that this other mechanism is likely to be a transactivator-dependent cryptic promoter in the gag gene which gives rise to Pol-encoding transcripts.

Foamy virus reverse transcriptase is expressed independently from the Gag protein.

In the foamy virus (FV) subgroup of retroviruses the pol genes are located in the +1 reading frame relative to the gag genes and possess potential ATG initiation codons in their 5' regions. This genome organization suggests either a + 1 ribosomal frameshift to generate a Gag-Pol fusion protein, similar to all other retroviruses studied so far, or new initiation of Pol translation, as used by pararetroviruses, to express the Pol protein. By using a genetic approach we have ruled out the former possibility and provide evidence for the latter. Two down-mutations (M53 and M54) of the pol ATG codon were found to abolish replication and Pol protein expression of the human FV isolate. The introduction of a new ATG in mutation M55, 3' to the down-mutated ATG of mutation M53, restored replication competence, indicating that the pol ATG functions as a translational initiation codon. Two nonsense mutants (M56 and M57), which functionally separated gag and pol with respect to potential frame-shifting sites, were also replication-competent, providing further genetic evidence that FVs express the Pol protein independently from Gag. Our results show that during a particular step of the replication cycle, FVs differ fundamentally from all other retroviruses.