title: Effects of varying sequence similarity on the frequency of repeat deletion during reverse transcription of a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 vector.
abstract: Genetic recombination contributes to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) diversity, with homologous recombination being more frequent than nonhomologous recombination. In this study, HIV-1-based vectors were used to assay the effects of various extents of sequence divergence on the frequency of the recombination-related property of repeat deletion. Sequence variation, similar in degree to that which differentiates natural HIV-1 isolates, was introduced by synonymous substitutions into a gene segment. Repeated copies of this segment were then introduced into assay vectors. With the use of a phenotypic screen, the deletion frequency of identical repeats was compared to the frequencies of repeats that differed in sequence by various extents. During HIV-1 reverse transcription, the deletion frequency observed with repeats that differed by 5% was 65% of that observed with identical repeats. The deletion frequency decreased to 26% for repeats that differed by 9%, and when repeats differed by 18%, the deletion frequency was about 5% of the identical repeat value. Deletion frequencies fell to less than 0.3% of identical repeat values when genetic distances of 27% or more were examined. These data argue that genetic variation is not as inhibitory to HIV-1 repeat deletion as it is to the corresponding cellular process and suggest that, for sequences that differ by about 25% or more, HIV-1 recombination directed by sequence homology may be no more frequent than that which is homology independent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-0620, USA.
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Telesnitsky
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013698:Templates, Genetic; D014158:Transcription, Genetic