HIGHLY DIVERGENT MOLECULAR VARIANTS OF HUMAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS TYPE-I FROM ISOLATED POPULATIONS IN PAPUA-NEW-GUINEA AND THE SOLOMON-ISLANDS

To determine the molecular genetic relationship between Melanesian strains of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and cosmopolitan prototype HTLV-I, we amplified by PCR, then cloned, and sequenced a 522-base-pair region of the HTLV-I env gene in DNA extracted from uncultured (fresh) and cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from six seropositive Melanesian Papua New Guineans and Solomon Islanders, including a Solomon Islander with HTLV-1 myeloneuropathy. Unlike isolates of HTLV-I from Japan, the West Indies, the Americas, and Africa, which share greater-than-or-equal-to 97% sequence homology, the Melanesian strains of HTLV-I were only 91.8%-92.5% identical with a prototype Japanese HTLV-I(ATK-1). The nucleotide sequence of proviral DNA from the Solomon Islander with HTLV-I myeloneuropathy also diverged markedly from that of HTLV-I isolated from Japanese patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy and from Jamaican patients with tropical spastic paraparesis, suggesting that these variant viruses are capable of causing disease. The HTLV-l variants from Papua New Guineans, in turn, differed by nearly 4% from the Melanesian variants from Solomon Islanders, indicating the existence of another HTLV-I quasispecies. By contrast, HTLV-1 strains from two residents of Bellona Island, a Polynesian Outlier within the Solomon Islands, were closely related to cosmopolitan prototype HTLV-I (greater-than-or-equal-to 97% sequence identity), suggesting recent introduction, possibly during this century. These findings are consistent with a proto-Melanesian HTLV-I strain of archaic presence, which evolved independently of contemporary cosmopolitan strains, and pose new questions about the origin and global dissemination of HTLV-I.