Heterogeneity of koala retrovirus isolates.

Koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a gammaretrovirus which may induce immune suppression, leukemia and lymphoma in koalas. Currently three KoRV subgroups (A, B, and J) have been reported. Our phylogenetic analysis suggests that KoRV-B and KoRV-J should be classified as the same subgroup. In long terminal repeat (LTR), a KoRV-B isolate has four 17 bp tandem repeats named direct repeat (DR)-1, while a KoRV-J isolate (strain OJ-4) has three 37 bp tandem repeats named DR-2. We also found that the promoter activity of the KoRV-J strain OJ-4 is stronger than that of original KoRV-A, suggesting that KoRV-J may replicate more efficiently than KoRV-A.