Genetic and biological characterization of feline foamy virus isolated from a leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Vietnam

Abstract

Foamy viruses have been isolated from various mammals and show long-term co-speciation with their hosts. However, the frequent inter-species transmission of feline foamy viruses (FFVs) from domestic cats to wild cats across genera has been reported. Because infectious molecular clones of FFVs derived from wild cats have not been available, whether there are specific characteristics enabling FFVs to adapt to the new host species is still unknown. Here, we obtained the complete genome sequences of two FFV isolates (strains NV138 and SV201) from leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Vietnam and constructed an infectious molecular clone, named pLC960, from strain NV138. The growth kinetics of the virus derived from pLC960 were comparable to those of other FFVs derived from domestic cats. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these two FFVs from leopard cats are clustered in the same clade as FFVs from domestic cats in Vietnam. Comparisons of the amino acid sequences of Env and Bet proteins showed more than 97% identity among samples and no specific amino acid substitutions between FFVs from domestic cats and ones from leopard cats. These results indicate the absence of genetic constraint of FFVs for interspecies transmission from domestic cats to leopard cats.