title: Direct correlation between genome dimerization and recombination efficiency of HIV-1.
abstract: More than ten subtypes of Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) have been identified, and many inter-subtype recombinant viruses have been isolated. The genome of HIV-1 is a single-stranded positive sense RNA, and is always found as dimers in virus particles. Frequent recombination between two genomes during reverse transcription is often observed and thus reasonable to assume that genome dimerization controls viral genomic recombination. Recently, several reports indicated in vitro/in vivo data to support this idea. In the study reported here, in an attempt to show a comprehensive evidence, we compared the efficiency of various inter-subtype dimerization and recombination and detected a near-complete correlation of the two functions. This suggests that genome dimerization controls recombination and plays an important role in promoting the genetic diversity of HIV-1 in general. We also investigated various inter-subtype hetero-dimerization within HIV-1 virions, and found that the dimer initiation site is a major, but not the sole determinant of dimerization (and recombination) efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Viral Infections, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, 3-1 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. sakuragi@biken.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Jun-ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sakuragi
authors.forename: Sayuri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakuragi
authors.forename: Masahisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohishi
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shioda
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D019281:Dimerization; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral