title: Proviral progeny of heterodimeric virions reveal a high crossover rate for human immunodeficiency virus type 2.
abstract: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the causative agent of AIDS in humans, exhibits a very high rate of recombination. Bearing in mind the significant epidemiological and clinical contrast between HIV-2 and HIV-1 as well as the critical role that recombination plays in viral evolution, we examined the nature of HIV-2 recombination. Towards this end, a strategy was devised to measure the rate of crossover of HIV-2 by evaluating recombinant progeny produced exclusively by heterodimeric virions. The results showed that HIV-2 exhibits a crossover rate similar to that of HIV-1 and murine leukemia virus, indicating that the extremely high rate of crossover is a common retroviral feature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Sayandip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Hui-Ling Rose
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yacov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ron
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dougherty
mesh_terms: D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000235:genetics; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D014771:Virion / Q000235:genetics*