An individual with a high prevalence of a tat-defective provirus in peripheral blood.
The first exon of tat was sequenced from 23 provirus genomes randomly amplified directly from an HIV-1-infected individual's peripheral blood. Twelve of the 23 sequences constituted a distinct subset of the quasi-species detected. This subset had in common two inactivating mutations in the tat gene. In addition, two of these defective genomes each had a unique mutation. This is the second instance of a defective early gene being present in a high percentage of the proviruses present in the PBMCs of an HIV-1-infected individual, (the first reported by Martins LP et al.: J Virol 1991;65:4502-4507), and suggests that genomes defective in an early gene can participate in the infectious spread of HIV-1 in vivo.
Sabino
E
E
Irwin Memorial Blood Centers, San Francisco, California 94118.
Cheng-Mayer
C
C
Mayer
A
A
D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015756:Genes, tat; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral