Near full-length genomic characterization of a HIV type 1 BC recombinant strain from Manipur, India.
Genetic complexity of HIV-1 is brought about by recombination between HIV-1 subtypes which leads to the development of epidemiologically significant founder strains. In the present study, the near full-length genome sequence of an HIV-1 isolate from an injecting drug user of Manipur (India) was determined, which evidenced the presence of a novel HIV-1 BC recombinant strain. Near full-length genome was amplified by polymerase chain reaction using primer walking approach. The recombination break points were detected using bootscan and simplot analyses. This isolate exhibited a mosaic structure consisting of subtype C backbone with subtype B insertions at the upstream of pol gene (3026-3259) and the downstream of env gene which spanned till the nef gene (8183-8961). Phylogenetic relationships determined with neighbor-joining trees, revealed that the subtype C sequences clustered with sequences from Indian subtype C HIV-1 strains, and the subtype B sequences clustered with HIV-1 subtype B strains from Thailand. This finding may create a complex scenario of HIV-1 epidemic among the injecting drug users of Manipur in near future.
HIV/AIDS Laboratory, Division of Virology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33, C.I.T. Road, Scheme-XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata 700010, India.
Roni
R
Sarkar
Kamalesh
K
Sarkar
N Brajachand
NB
Singh
Y Manihar
YM
Singh
Sekhar
S
Chakrabarti
D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013785:Thailand
D012367:RNA, Viral