title: Mechanisms and factors that influence high frequency retroviral recombination.
abstract: With constantly changing environmental selection pressures, retroviruses rely upon recombination to reassort polymorphisms in their genomes and increase genetic diversity, which improves the chances for the survival of their population. Recombination occurs during DNA synthesis, whereby reverse transcriptase undergoes template switching events between the two copackaged RNAs, resulting in a viral recombinant with portions of the genetic information from each parental RNA. This review summarizes our current understanding of the factors and mechanisms influencing retroviral recombination, fidelity of the recombination process, and evaluates the subsequent viral diversity and fitness of the progeny recombinant. Specifically, the high mutation rates and high recombination frequencies of HIV-1 will be analyzed for their roles in influencing HIV-1 global diversity, as well as HIV-1 diagnosis, drug treatment, and vaccine development.
authors: Viral Mutation Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors: Krista
authors: K
authors: Delviks-Frankenberry
authors: Viral Recombination Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.|Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program, Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre 2650, Denmark.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Galli
authors: Viral Recombination Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Nikolaitchik
authors: Department of Epidemic Diseases, Rigshospitalet, København 2100, Denmark.
authors: Helene
authors: H
authors: Mens
authors: Viral Mutation Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors: Vinay K
authors: VK
authors: Pathak
authors: Viral Recombination Section, HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors: Wei-Shau
authors: WS
authors: Hu
mesh_terms: D004261:DNA Replication; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D059645:Mutation Rate; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral