Identification of novel integration sites for bovine leukemia virus proviral DNA in cancer driver genes in cattle with persistent lymphocytosis

Enzootic bovine leukosis is one of the unsolved problems of cattle breeding in many countries. The etiological agent of the disease is the bovine leukemia virus (BLV) - an oncogenic retrovirus, that infects B-lymphocytes in cattle. The number and genetic content of BLV provirus integration sites in the bovine genome were reported to can be used as an early diagnostic sign of leukemogenesis in the infected cattle, but patterns of BLV provirus integration into the bovine genome and associations between genomic features of the integration sites and development of lymphocytosis and B-cell lymphomas remain poorly elucidated. Here we present data on five novel BLV provirus integration sites in the genome of cattle with persistent lymphocytosis. Two of these sites were located in introns of scfd2 and pgpep1 genes, which have been recognized as cancer driver genes. Three of the rest integration sites were found in the intergenic spaces between ctps1 and cited4, nampt and ccdc71, skp2 and lmbrd2 genes, from which cited4 and skp2 also possess oncogenic properties. These data support previous findings of the association between localization of BLV proviral DNA near cancer driver genes and leukemogenesis in the BLV-infected cattle.