Complete nucleotide sequence and evolutionary analysis of a gorilla foamy virus.

To shed light on primate foamy virus (FV) evolution, we determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the gorilla simian foamy virus (SFVgor). Starting from a conserved region in the integrase (IN) domain of the pol gene we cloned the viral genome to the 5' and 3' LTR into plasmid vectors and elucidated its nucleotide sequence. The sequences of both LTRs were determined by nucleotide sequencing of separate PCR products from the primer-binding site or the bel region and LTRs. All protein motifs conserved among the primate FV were identified in SFVgor. Using phylogenetic analysis of the Gag, Pol and Env amino acid sequences, we demonstrate that SFVgor consistently clusters in accordance with a scenario of virus-host co-divergence.