Effects of random mutations in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 transcriptional promoter on viral fitness in different host cell environments.

ABSTRACT: A mutation's effect on fitness or phenotype may in part depend on the interaction of the mutation with the environment. The resulting phenotype or fitness is important, since it determines the adaptive potential of a species. To date, most studies have focused on alterations to protein-coding regions of the genome and their consequential fitness effects. Non-protein-coding regulatory regions have been largely neglected, although they make up a large and important part of an organism's genome. Here, we use human immunodeficiency virus type 1 as a model system to investigate fitness effects of random mutations in noncoding DNA-binding sites of the transcriptional promoter. We determined 242 fitness values for 35 viral promoter mutants with one, two, or three mutations across seven distinct c

SUBMITTER: van Opijnen T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1488947 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature