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Re-analysis of 34 full-length HIV-1 intersubtype recombinant sequences.

Magiorkinis G, Paraskevis D, Magiorkinis E, Vandamme AM, Hatzakis A

National Retrovirus Reference Center, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens University Medical School, Mikras Asias 75, 11527 Athens, Greece.

One of the main characteristics of the HIV-1 is its extensive genetic heterogeneity. Intersubtype recombination was first described in 1995 and since then a significant proportion of the HIV-1 isolates was found to comprise mosaic sequences. Re-analysis of 34 full-length HIV-1 intersubtype recombinants, including all "pure" HIV-1 subtypes revealed that 19 of the 34 analyzed mosaics consist of a more complex mosaic pattern than initially described. These findings indicate that the complexity of the HIV-1 recombinants is much greater than previously estimated.

Published 1 March 2005 in Infect Genet Evol, 5(3): 225-9.
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