title: The polymorphic nature of HIV type 1 env V4 affects the patterns of potential N-glycosylation sites in proviral DNA at the intrahost level.
abstract: We have previously shown that env V4 from HIV-1 plasma RNA is highly heterogeneous within a single patient, due to indel-associated polymorphism. In this study, we have analyzed the variability of V4 in proviral DNA from unfractionated PBMC and sorted T and non-T cell populations within individual patients. Our data show that the degree of sequence variability and length polymorphism in V4 from HIV provirus is even higher than we previously reported in plasma. The data also show that the sequence of V4 depends largely on the experimental approach chosen. We could observe no clear trend for compartmentalization of V4 variants in specific cell types. Of interest is the fact that some variants that had been found to be predominant in plasma were not detected in any of the cell subsets analyzed. Consistently with our observations in plasma, V3 was found to be relatively conserved at both interpatient and intrapatient level. Our data show that V4 polymorphism involving insertions and deletions in addition to point mutations results in changes in the patterns of sequons in HIV-1 proviral DNA as well as in plasma RNA. These rearrangements may result in the coexistence, within the same individual, of a swarm of different V4 regions, each characterized by a different carbohydrate surface shield. Further studies are needed to investigate the mechanism responsible for the variability observed in V4 and its role in HIV pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Manon
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Belair
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dovat
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Foley
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mayerat
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pantaleo
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graziosi
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D006031:Glycosylation; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D054643:INDEL Mutation; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017354:Point Mutation; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D054299:env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus