Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Heterosexual transmission of HIV-1 typically results in one genetic variant establishing systemic infection. We compared, for 137 linked transmission pairs, the amino acid sequences encoded by non-envelope genes of viruses in both partners and demonstrate a selection bias for transmission of residues that are predicted to confer increased in vivo fitness on viruses in the newly infected, immunologically naïve recipient. Although tempered by transmission risk factors, such as donor viral load, genital inflammation, and recipient gender, this selection bias provides an overall transmission advantage for viral quasispecies that are dominated by viruses with high in vivo fitness. Thus, preventative or therapeutic approaches that even marginally reduce viral fitness may lower the overall transmission rates and offer long-term benefits even upon successful transmission.

Original publication

DOI

10.1126/science.1254031

Type

Journal article

Journal

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Publication Date

10/07/2014

Volume

345

Addresses

Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA 98052, USA. carlson@microsoft.com ehunte4@emory.edu.

Keywords

Humans, HIV-1, HIV Infections, Viral Load, Models, Statistical, Risk Factors, DNA Mutational Analysis, Heterosexuality, Amino Acid Sequence, Consensus Sequence, Point Mutation, Molecular Sequence Data, Female, Male, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Proteins, Disease Transmission, Infectious, Selection, Genetic, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing