HIV-1 Genetic Recombination: Experimental Approaches and Observations
Wenfeng An 1, Alice Telesnitsky 1
1 NULL
*Correspondence: Alice Telesnitsky, Email not available
Abstract
Many HIV-1 isolates contain interwoven genomic sections derived from multiple parental strains. Such chimeric genomes arise via genetic recombination. This review summarizes experimental approaches for addressing the frequency of HIV-1 genetic recombination during single cycles of viral replication in vitro, and describes factors –such as variation in extents of sequence homology and the metabolic state of the infected cell– that modulate recombination. Findings from such studies suggest that recombinogenic template switching is an even more common occurrence during HIV-1 DNA synthesis than is the introduction of base substitution errors. This implies that recombination is an inherent property of retroviral DNA synthesis, and that the vast majority of HIV-1 DNAs are biochemical recombinants.
