The relative contributions of infectious and mitotic spread to HTLV-1 persistence
Fig 1
HTLV-1 infectious and mitotic spread schematic.
Left column (Infectious spread): an HTLV-1-infected cell infects an uninfected CD4+ T cell (typically by cell-to-cell contact via the virological synapse, and potentially also via cell-free spread). The HTLV-1 provirus (red) integrates in a different genomic location in the newly infected cell, so infectious spread has resulted in two clones. Right column (Mitotic spread): An HTLV-1-infected cell divides, whereupon the provirus resides in the same genomic location in each daughter cell. The figure shows a single clone with two HTLV-1-infected cells.