Isolation from cats of an endogenous type C virus with a novel envelope glycoprotein.

A search for variant endogenous cat viruses led to a novel isolate. Although the major envelope glycoprotein of this virus was similar in size to that of an RD-114-like virus that was coisolated, it was unrelated to RD-114 or feline leukemia virus by immunological and biological criteria. This degree of dissimilarity suggests a different evolutionary progenitor from that for the RD-114 and feline leukemia virus viral envelopes. The novel virus did, however, code for gag gene polypeptides which are closely related to RD-114 virus. Neither the novel isolate nor the RD-114-like coisolate induced foci in S+L- cat cells which restrict focus induction by RD-114 virus. This suggests that the two viruses share a common genomic target of restriction which resides outside of the env region.