RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Chandhasin, Chandtip A1 Lobelle-Rich, Patricia A1 Levy, Laura S.YR 2004 T1 Feline leukaemia virus LTR variation and disease association in a geographical and temporal cluster JF Journal of General Virology, VO 85 IS 10 SP 2937 OP 2942 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.80149-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV)-945 was previously identified in natural multicentric lymphomas and contains a 21 bp tandem triplication in the LTR. In the present study, FeLV LTR variation was examined in the cohort from which FeLV-945 was identified. The objectives of the study were to evaluate FeLV LTR variation within the cohort, to determine whether the FeLV-945 LTR was associated uniquely with multicentric lymphoma and to evaluate functional attributes that may have contributed selective advantage to the predominant LTR variants observed. T-cell tumours uniformly contained LTRs with duplicated enhancer sequences, although enhancer duplications conferred little transcriptional advantage. Non-T-cell malignant, proliferative and degenerative diseases contained LTRs with two, three or four tandemly repeated copies of the 21 bp sequence originally identified in FeLV-945. While the length and termini of enhancer duplications were variable, the 21 bp repeat unit was invariant. Triplication of the 21 bp repeat conferred the optimal replicative advantage in feline cells., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.80149-0