An AB recombinant and its parental HIV type 1 strains in the area of the former Soviet Union: low requirements for sequence identity in recombination. UNAIDS Virus Isolation Network.
In the former Soviet Union (SU) increasing numbers of HIV-1 infections among injecting drug users (IDU) have been reported, especially in the Ukraine. The main subtype transmitted among the IDUs seems to be subtype A, but limited numbers of subtype B cases have also been reported. In Kaliningrad, Russia, an AB recombinant strain was earlier shown to be responsible for the local outbreak. Here we describe the genetic relationship of HIV-1 strains circulating among IDUs in the former SU. For subtype A and the AB recombinant strains nearly full-length genomes were sequenced, and for one subtype B strain the entire envelope gene was cloned. The relationship between the AB recombinant strain and the subtype A and subtype B strains and the mosaic structure of the recombinant was studied by phylogenetic analysis. Ukrainian A and B strains were shown to be the probable parental viruses of the Kaliningrad AB recombinant strain. In the envelope gene the recombination breakpoint could also be precisely mapped to a region of similarity of only 14 base pairs. This suggests that only short stretches of absolute sequence identity may be needed for efficient RNA recombination between HIV-1 subtypes.
Liitsola
K
K
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland. kirsi.liitsola@ktl.fi
Holm
K
K
Bobkov
A
A
Pokrovsky
V
V
Smolskaya
T
T
Leinikki
P
P
Osmanov
S
S
Salminen
M
M
D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015752:Genes, env; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications; D014455:Ukraine / Q000453:epidemiology