Endogenous New World primate retrovirus: interspecies antigenic determinants shared with the major structural protein of type-D RNA viruses of Old World monkeys.

A reverse transcriptase-containing virus has recently been isolated from a squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Molecular hybridization studies demonstrate that the squirrel monkey retrovirus (SMRV) is endogenous to this New World primate, yet lacks detectable nucleotide sequence homology with cellular DNAs of representative Old World primates or with the genomes of previously isolated Old World primate retroviruses. The 35,000-dalton major structural protein (p35) of SMRV was purified and shown to possess antigenic determinants distinct from those of known retroviruses. While SMRV was found to lack antigenic determinants broadly shared among mammalian type-C viruses, immunologic crossreactivity was demonstrated between SMRV p35 and the major structural protein (p26) of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus, a prototype type-D retrovirus of Old World monkeys. These findings support the concept that SMRV and Mason-Pfizer monkey virus are evolutionarily related, and raise the possibility that a progenitor of type-D retroviruses became genetically associated with primates at a very early time in their evolution.