Open AccessRole of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Envelope Gene in Viral Fitness
Author(s) -
Héctor R. Rangel,
Jan Weber,
Bikram Chakraborty,
Arantxa Gutiérrez,
Michael Marotta,
Muneer Mirza,
Patti Kiser,
Miguel Ángel Martı́nez,
Ester Ballana,
Miguel E. QuiñonesMateu
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.617
H-Index - 292
eISSN - 1070-6321
pISSN - 0022-538X
DOI - 10.1128/jvi.77.16.9069-9073.2003
Subject(s) - biology , virology , virus , viral entry , recombinant dna , tropism , viral evolution , gene , viral envelope , lentivirus , taqman , tissue tropism , viral replication , genetics , viral disease , polymerase chain reaction , rna
A human host offers a variety of microenvironments to the infecting human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), resulting in various selective pressures, most of them directed against the envelope (env) gene. Therefore, it seems evident that the replicative capacity of the virus is largely related to viral entry. In this study we have used growth competition experiments and TaqMan real-time PCR detection to measure the fitness of subtype B HIV-1 primary isolates and autologous env-recombinant viruses in order to analyze the contribution of wild-type env sequences to overall HIV-1 fitness. A significant correlation was observed between fitness values obtained for wild-type HIV-1 isolates and those for the corresponding env-recombinant viruses (r = 0.93; P = 0.002). Our results suggest that the env gene, which is linked to a myriad of viral characteristics (e.g., entry into the host cell, transmission, coreceptor usage, and tropism), plays a major role in fitness of wild-type HIV-1. In addition, this new recombinant assay may be useful for measuring the contribution of HIV-1 env to fitness in viruses resistant to novel antiretroviral entry inhibitors.