Akvr-1, a dominant murine leukemia virus restriction gene, is polymorphic in leukemia-prone wild mice.

Abstract

A restriction gene (Akvr-1, for AKR virus restriction) is polymorphic for 2 alleles Akvr-1R (restrictive) and Akvr-1r (susceptible) in a feral population of mice (Mus musculus domesticus) at a squab farm near Lake Casitas (LC) in southern California, USA. Akvr-1R is a dominant allele that exhibits 100% penetrace in prevention of viremia of AKR endogenous retrovirus and of virus-mediated lymphoma in LC (Akvr-1RR) .times. AKR F1 hybrids. The restriction phenotype segregates as a single Mendelian locus in backcrosses to AKR mice. Akvr-1R is effective in restriction of NB-tropic Moloney murine leukemia virus-induced viremia and NB-tropic Friend virus-induced splenomegaly but fails to restrict expression or pathogenesis of LC-derived amphotropic retrovirus. Pleiotropic restriction of AKR, Friend and Moloney ecotropic viruses, but not of amphotropic virus, suggests that the viral targets of Akvr-1 in the 3 ecotropic viruses are similar to each other and distinct from the target in the LC-amphotropic virus. The relationship of Akvr-1 to previously reported murine restriction loci Fv-1, Fv-2 and Fv-4 is discussed.