Buffering deleterious polymorphisms in highly constrained parts of HIV-1 envelope by flexible regions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Covariation is an essential process that leads to coevolution of parts of proteins and genomes. In organisms subject to strong selective pressure, coevolution is central to keep the balance between the opposite requirements of antigenic variation and retention of functionality. Being the viral component most exposed to the external environment, the HIV-1 glycoprotein gp120 constitutes the main target of the immune response. Accordingly its more external portions are characterised by extensive sequence heterogeneity fostering constant antigenic variation.

Results

We report that a single polymorphism, present at the level of the viral population in the conserved internal region C2, was sufficient to totally abolish Env functionality when introduced in an exogenous g

SUBMITTER: Gasser R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4967302 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature