The long terminal repeat of avian myeloblastosis virus shares structural and functional similarities with transposable elements and shows high conservation in the U5 and R regions compared to other avian retroviruses.
Hypothesis-generating in avian models; leaves open relevance to human retrovirology or vector design.
The nucleotide sequence of the integrated avian myeloblastosis virus long terminal repeat has been determined. The sequence is 385 base pairs long and is present at both ends of the viral DNA. The cell-virus junctions at each end consist of a 6-base-pair direct repeat of cell DNA next to the inverted repeat of viral DNA. The long terminal repeat also contains promoter-like sequences, an mRNA capping site, and polyadenylation signals. Several features of this long terminal repeat suggest a structural and functional similarity with sequences of transposable and other genetic elements. Comparison of these sequences with long terminal repeats of other avian retroviruses indicates that there is a great variation in the 3' unique sequence (U3), whereas the 5' specific sequences (U5) and the R region are highly conserved.
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Rushlow et al. (1982) studied this question.
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