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Mutations that eliminated the ability of the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III to produce the 27-kilodalton 3' orf product did not eliminate the ability of the virus to replicate in and kill T4+ cells. A mutant carrying a mutation that deleted carboxy-terminal sequences from the envelope gene as well as the 3' orf sequences retained the ability to kill T4+ lymphocytes, but had a retarded replication rate.
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Terwilliger et al. (1986) studied this question.
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