Journal of General Virology, Vol 78, 2871-2882, Copyright © 1997 by Society for General Microbiology

ARTICLES

Investigation of population diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in vivo by nucleotide sequencing and length polymorphism analysis of the V1/V2 hypervariable region of env

ES Hughes, JE Bell and P Simmonds
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, UK.

In this study we have analysed variability in the V1 and V2 regions of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proviral sequences amplified from lymphoid tissue, brain and other non-lymphoid tissue collected at autopsy from three HIV-1-infected individuals with giant cell encephalitis. We found no evidence for any tissue-specific grouping of variants in the V1/V2 regions, in contrast to previous comparisons of sequences in the V3 region, but consistent with the existence of evolutionarily distinct lineages previously observed in these study subjects by sequence comparisons of the p17gag gene. Examination of inferred amino acid sequences from V1 and V2 revealed no correlations between tissue origin with overall charge, length or number of glycosylation sites. Length polymorphism analysis is a rapid method to compare whole populations of HIV-1 variants within a sample, and provides information on the length and diversity of the V1 and V2 hypervariable regions. Based upon a comparison of 42 individuals with CD4 counts ranging from 802 to < 1 at time of death, we found no evidence for changes in the length of V2 with development of AIDS. Using the number of length variants in the V1 and V2 hypervariable region as a marker of the overall degree of variability within HIV populations, we found no evidence for an increase or a decrease in diversity between those with and without AIDS defining illness.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. Voronin, B. Chohan, M. Emerman, and J. Overbaugh Primary Isolates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Are Usually Dominated by the Major Variants Found in Blood J. Virol., October 1, 2007; 81(19): 10232 - 10241. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. G. Hoffman, F. Seillier-Moiseiwitsch, J. Ahn, J. M. Walker, and R. Swanstrom Variability in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 gp120 Env Protein Linked to Phenotype-Associated Changes in the V3 Loop J. Virol., March 19, 2002; 76(8): 3852 - 3864. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. D. W. Frost, M.-J. Dumaurier, S. Wain-Hobson, and A. J. L. Brown Genetic drift and within-host metapopulation dynamics of HIV-1 infection PNAS, May 24, 2001; (2001) 131056998. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Morris, M. Marsden, K. Halcrow, E. S. Hughes, R. P. Brettle, J. E. Bell, and P. Simmonds Mosaic Structure of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Genome Infecting Lymphoid Cells and the Brain: Evidence for Frequent In Vivo Recombination Events in the Evolution of Regional Populations J. Virol., October 1, 1999; 73(10): 8720 - 8731. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. D. W. Frost, M.-J. Dumaurier, S. Wain-Hobson, and A. J. L. Brown Genetic drift and within-host metapopulation dynamics of HIV-1 infection PNAS, June 5, 2001; 98(12): 6975 - 6980. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]