A maedi-visna virus strain K1514 receptor gene is located in sheep chromosome 3p and the syntenic region of human chromosome 2.

The maedi-visna lentivirus (MVV) induces encephalitis, interstitial pneumonia, arthritis and mastitis in sheep. While some MVV strains can enter cells of ruminant species only, others can enter cells from many species, including human, but not Chinese hamster cells. However, the identity of the receptor(s) used by MVV for entry is unknown. The MVV-K1514 receptor gene was localized in sheep and human chromosomes using hamster x sheep and hamster x human hybrid cell lines. Based on entry by a vector pseudotyped with the MVV-K1514 envelope, the MVV-K1514 receptor gene was mapped to sheep chromosome 3p and to a region of human chromosome 2 (2p25>q13), which has conserved synteny with sheep chromosome 3p. These regions do not include any known lentivirus receptor or coreceptor gene, indicating that MVV-K1514 uses a new lentivirus receptor to infect human cells.