Concomitant emergence of the antisense protein gene of HIV-1 and of the pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Recent experiments provide sound arguments in favor of the in vivo expression of the AntiSense Protein (ASP) of HIV-1. This putative protein is encoded on the antisense strand of the provirus genome and entirely overlapped by the env gene with reading frame -2. The existence of ASP was suggested in 1988, but is still controversial, and its function has yet to be determined. We used a large dataset of ∼23,000 HIV-1 and SIV sequences to study the origin, evolution, and conservation of the asp gene. We found that the ASP ORF is specific to group M of HIV-1, which is responsible for the human pandemic. Moreover, the correlation between the presence of asp and the prevalence of HIV-1 groups and M subtypes appeared to be statistically significant. We then looked for evidence of selection pressur

SUBMITTER: Cassan E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5068275 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature