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Bovine foamy virus (BFV) is distributed through worldwide cattle herds. Although the biological features of BFV are not well understood, appearance of clinical manifestation by superinfection with other microorganisms is inferred. In Japan, reports of genomic characterizations and epidemiology of this virus are limited. In this study, we performed whole genomic sequencing of BFV strains Ibaraki and No.43, which were isolated in this country. Additionally, we investigated BFV in geographically distant four daily farms in Japan, to estimate the distribution of BFV and its correlation to bovine leukemia virus (BLV). BFV was distributed throughout Japan; the average positive rate was 12.7%. The nucleotide sequence identities of the isolates were 99.6% when compared with BFV strain isolated in the USA. The phylogenetic tree using env gene sequence showed strains Ibaraki, No.43 and Kagoshima were sorted in the same cluster including the USA and Chinese strains, while Hokkaido strain was in the other cluster including European strains. Although no clear correlation between BFV and BLV could be found, BFV and BLV infections were likely to increase with ages. Our data on epidemiology and characteristics of BFV will provide important information to reveal biological features of BFV.

Membrane proteins of enveloped viruses have been reported to undergo palmitoylation, a post-translational modification often having a critical role in the function of these viral proteins and hence viral replication. In this study, we report that the foamy virus (FV) envelope (Env) glycoprotein is palmitoylated. Specifically, we found that bovine foamy virus (BFV) Env (BEnv) is palmitoylated at amino acid positions C58 and C59 by BDHHC3 and BDHHC20 in a DHHC motif-dependent manner. In addition, mutations C58S and C58/59S significantly decrease cell surface expression of BEnv, subviral particle (SVP) egress, and its membrane fusion activity, thus ultimately inhibiting BFV replication. The C59S mutation exerts a minor effect in this regard. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the function of BEnv in the context of BFV replication is under the regulation of palmitoylation.

The prevalence of bovine foamy virus (BFV) infections in cattle on farms in the Kanto region of Japan was determined using agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Six out of 20 farms contained BFV-positive cattle. Furthermore, 16.7% (91/545) of all cattle tested positive for BFV. This suggested that BFV-infected cattle are widely prevalent in Japan. Positive results for BFV infection were consistent between AGID and PCR tests. Additionally, we tested for bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infections at nine farms, primarily those containing BFV-infected cows. At each farm, the infection rate of BFV was lower than that of BLV. Further, cattle that were PCR-positive but antibody-negative, indicating immune tolerance to BFV, were not detected.

Bovine foamy virus (BFV) is endemic in many countries, but has not been reported in Japan. A syncytium-forming virus was isolated from peripheral blood leukocytes of clinically healthy cattle on a farm in Kanagawa prefecture during a periodic epidemiological survey of viral diseases. The isolate was propagated in primary fetal bovine muscle cells and subsequently passaged in Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells. Since the isolate appeared to be distinct from the viruses with syncytium-forming ability previously isolated in Japan, we attempted to identify it using genomic analyses and electron microscopy. A phylogenetic analysis revealed that the isolate belongs to the bovine foamy virus cluster and is highly similar to a BFV strain isolated in China. A sero-epidemiological survey was performed using agar gel immunodiffusion test with the isolated virus as the antigen, and five of the 57 cattle tested were found to be seropositive.

During in vitro selection and evolution screens to adapt the tightly cell-associated bovine foamy virus BFV to high titer cell-free transmission, common, cell-type specific and concurrent adaptive changes in Gag and Env, the major players of foamy virus particle assembly and release, were detected. Upon early establishment of cell type-independent pioneering mutations in Env and, subsequently in Gag, a diverse virus pool emerged that was characterized by the occurrence of shared and additional cell type-specific exchanges. At late passages and saturated titers, remarkably homogeneous virus populations characterized by functionally important mutations developed which may be partly due to stochastic evolutionary events that occurred earlier during adaptation. Reverse genetics showed that defined mutations were functionally important for high titer cell-free transmission.

In addition to regulatory or accessory proteins, some complex retroviruses gain a repertoire of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) to regulate and control virus&ndash, host interactions for efficient replication and spread. In particular, bovine and simian foamy viruses (BFV and SFV) have recently been shown to express a diverse set of RNA polymerase III-directed miRNAs, some with a unique primary miRNA double-hairpin, dumbbell-shaped structure not known in other viruses or organisms. While the mechanisms of expression and structural requirements have been studied, the functional importance of these miRNAs is still far from understood. Here, we describe the in silico identification of BFV miRNA targets and the subsequent experimental validation of bovine Ankyrin Repeat Domain 17 (ANKRD17) and Bax-interacting factor 1 (Bif1) target genes in vitro and, finally, the suppression of ANKRD17 downstream genes in the affected pathway. Deletion of the entire miRNA cassette in the non-coding part of the U3 region of the long terminal repeats attenuated replication of corresponding BFV mutants in bovine cells. This repression can be almost completely trans-complemented by the most abundant miRNA BF2-5p having the best scores for predicted and validated BFV miRNA target genes. Deletion of the miRNA cassette does not grossly affect particle release and overall particle composition.

The retroviral subfamily of Spumaretrovirinae consists of five genera of foamy (spuma) viruses (FVs) that are endemic in some mammalian hosts. Closely related species may be susceptible to the same or highly related FVs. FVs are not known to induce overt disease and thus do not pose medical problems to humans and livestock or companion animals. A robust lab animal model is not available or is a lab animal a natural host of a FV. Due to this, research is limited and often focused on the simian FVs with their well-established zoonotic potential. The authors of this review and their groups have conducted several studies on bovine FV (BFV) in the past with the intention of (i) exploring the risk of zoonotic infection via beef and raw cattle products, (ii) studying a co-factorial role of BFV in different cattle diseases with unclear etiology, (iii) exploring unique features of FV molecular biology and replication strategies in non-simian FVs, and (iv) conducting animal studies and functional virology in BFV-infected calves as a model for corresponding studies in primates or small lab animals. These studies gained new insights into FV-host interactions, mechanisms of gene expression, and transcriptional regulation, including miRNA biology, host-directed restriction of FV replication, spread and distribution in the infected animal, and at the population level. The current review attempts to summarize these findings in BFV and tries to connect them to findings from other FVs.

Background Bovine foamy virus (BFV) encodes the transactivator BTas, which enhances viral gene transcription by binding to the long terminal repeat promoter and the internal promoter. In this study, we investigated the different replication capacities of two similar BFV full-length DNA clones, pBS-BFV-Y and pBS-BFV-B. Results Here, functional analysis of several chimeric clones revealed a major role for the C-terminal region of the viral genome in causing this difference. Furthermore, BTas-B, which is located in this C-terminal region, exhibited a 20-fold higher transactivation activity than BTas-Y. Sequence alignment showed that these two sequences differ only at amino acid 108, with BTas-B containing N108 and BTas-Y containing D108 at this position. Results of mutagenesis studies demonstrated that residue N108 is important for BTas binding to viral promoters. In addition, the N108D mutation in pBS-BFV-B reduced the viral replication capacity by about 1.5-fold. Conclusions Our results suggest that residue N108 is important for BTas binding to BFV promoters and has a major role in BFV replication. These findings not only advances our understanding of the transactivation mechanism of BTas, but they also highlight the importance of certain sequence polymorphisms in modulating the replication capacity of isolated BFV clones.

Foamy viruses (FVs) have extensive cell tropism in vitro, special replication features, and no clinical pathogenicity in naturally or experimentally infected animals, which distinguish them from orthoretroviruses. Among FVs, bovine foamy virus (BFV) has undetectable or extremely low levels of cell-free transmission in the supernatants of infected cells and mainly spreads by cell-to-cell transmission, which deters its use as a gene transfer vector. Here, using an in vitro virus evolution system, we successfully isolated high-titer cell-free BFV strains from the original cell-to-cell transmissible BFV3026 strain and further constructed an infectious cell-free BFV clone called pBS-BFV-Z1. Following sequence alignment with a cell-associated clone pBS-BFV-B, we identified a number of changes in the genome of pBS-BFV-Z1. Extensive mutagenesis analysis revealed that the C-terminus of envelope protein, especially the K898 residue, controls BFV cell-free transmission by enhancing cell-free virus entry but not the virus release capacity. Taken together, our data show the genetic determinants that regulate cell-to-cell and cell-free transmission of BFV.

The biology of foamy viruses, their mode of transmission and disease potential in their natural host and after interspecies transmission are largely unknown. To gain insights into the prevalence of bovine foamy virus (BFV) and its zoonotic potential, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were established to determine antibody responses against Gag, Env, and the non-structural protein Bet in bovine serum and milk. In Polish cattle, strong Gag reactivity was most frequent (41.5%) and strongly associated with Bet antibodies, Env antibodies were less frequent. German cattle showed a low overall BFV antibody prevalence of 6.8%. Besides clearly BFV-positive animals, a substantial number of weakly reacting cattle were identified. BFV-specific antibodies were also detectable in milk.BFV was isolated from PBLs and milk cells of BFV-positive cattle but not from antibody-negative or weakly reacting animals. The implications of these findings for the potential interspecies transmission of BFV to humans will be discussed.

Virus transmission is essential for spreading viral infections and is a highly coordinated process which occurs by cell-free transmission or cell–cell contact. The transmission of Bovine Foamy Virus (BFV) is highly cell-associated, with undetectable cell-free transmission. However, BFV particle budding can be induced by overexpression of wild-type (wt) BFV Gag and Env or artificial retargeting of Gag to the plasma membrane via myristoylation membrane targeting signals, closely resembling observations in other foamy viruses. Thus, the particle release machinery of wt BFV appears to be an excellent model system to study viral adaption to cell-free transmission by in vitro selection and evolution. Using selection for BFV variants with high cell-free infectivity in bovine and non-bovine cells, infectivity dramatically increased from almost no infectious units to about 105–106 FFU (fluorescent focus forming units)/mL in both cell types. Importantly, the selected BFV variants with high titer (HT) cell-free infectivity could still transmit via cell-cell contacts and were neutralized by serum from naturally infected cows. These selected HT–BFV variants will shed light into virus transmission and potential routes of intervention in the spread of viral infections. It will also allow the improvement or development of new promising approaches for antiretroviral therapies.

Cellular acetylation signaling is important for viral gene regulation, particularly during the transactivation of retroviruses. The regulatory protein of bovine foamy virus (BFV), BTas, is a transactivator that augments viral gene transcription from both the long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter and the internal promoter (IP). In this study, we report that the histone acetyltransferase (HAT), p300, specifically acetylates BTas both in vivo and in vitro. Further studies demonstrated that BTas acetylation markedly enhances its transactivation activity. Mutagenesis analysis identified three lysines at positions 66, 109 and 110 in BTas that are acetylated by p300. The K110R mutant lost its binding to BFV promoter as well as its ability to activate BFV promoter. The acetylation of K66 and K109 may contribute to increased BTas binding ability. These results suggest that the p300-acetylated lysines of BTas are important for transactivation of BFV promoters and therefore have an important role in BFV replication.