Monopartite, linear, dimeric, ssRNA(+) genome of about 7.2 kb, with a 5'-cap and a 3’poly-A tail. There are two long terminal repeats (LTRs) of about 600nt long at the 5' and 3' ends. The LTRs contain the U3, R, and U5 regions. There are also a primer binding site (PBS) at the 5’end and a polypurine tract (PPT) at the 3’end.
The integrated provirus utilizes the promoter elements in the 5' LTR to drive transcription. This gives rise to the unspliced full length mRNA that will serve as genomic RNA to be packaged into virions or used as a template for translation of gag(pro) and gag(pro)-pol (1 ribosomal frameshift) polyproteins. The spliced mRNA encodes env that is cleaved into SU and TM envelope proteins. There are no additional genes other than gag, pro, pol and env.
ASSOCIATED DISEASES Malignancies (for oncogene-containing viruses).