Patent ID: 8541221

Claim:
An isolated primate T-lymphotropic virus (PTLV) polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide is a HTLV-3 or HTLV-4 gag, pol, env, tax, rex or pro protein selected from the group consisting of: (i) a HTLV-3 gag protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 91.5% identical to SEQ ID NO: 35; (ii) a HTLV-3 pol protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 92.8% identical to SEQ ID NO: 1; (iii) a HTLV-3 env protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 92.5% identical to SEQ ID NO: 3; (iv) a HTLV-3 tax protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 94.2% identical to SEQ ID NO: 5; (v) a HTLV-3 rex protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 49; (vi) a HTLV-3 pro protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 47; (vii) a HTLV-4 gag protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising nucleotides 750-2024 of SEQ ID NO: 81; (viii) a HTLV-4 pol protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 71.5% identical to SEQ ID NO: 2; (ix) a HTLV-4 env protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 73.5% identical to SEQ ID NO: 4; (x) a HTLV-4 tax protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence at least 82% identical to SEQ ID NO: 6; (xi) a HTLV-4 rex protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 61; and (xii) a HTLV-4 pro protein encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 59.