title: Genetic analysis of regulatory, promoter, and TAR regions of LTR sequences belonging to HIV type 1 Non-B subtypes.
abstract: Transcriptional activation of HIV-1 gene expression is controlled by the interaction of sequence-specific transcription factors with the long terminal repeat (LTR). Information about differences between LTR regions in distinct HIV-1 subtypes is scarce. LTR sequences, including regulatory, enhancer, promoter, and TAR regions, were genetically characterized and compared in 59 HIV-1-infected individuals known to be infected with non-B subtypes. Phylogenetic analyses ascribed the LTR regions to the following subtypes: 10A, 2B, 6C, 1D, 2E, 2F, 16G, 3J, 2H, and 2U. Up to 34% of the samples were LTR/PR recombinants. The LTR region revealed a high degree of genetic variability among distinct HIV-1 subtypes and showed several subtype-specific markers, which hypothetically could influence the interactions with cellular transcription factors, leading to different transcriptional levels among distinct HIV-1 clades. To our knowledge, this is the first characterization of LTR sequences belonging to subtypes J and H.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Carlos III, 28035 Madrid Spain.
authors.forename: Eva Ramírez
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: De Arellano
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Soriano
authors.forename: Africa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Holguín
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D016325:HIV Long Terminal Repeat / Q000235:genetics*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid