Near full-length sequence analysis of a novel HIV-1 C/CRF01_AE recombinant variant from Yunnan, China.

Recombination contributes substantially to the overall genetic complexity of HIV-1, especially in populations in which multiple subtypes circulate. Yunnan is a province in China with most severely HIV epidemic where many subtypes and CRFs of HIV-1 are circulating. In this study, we report a novel HIV-1 recombination involving C and CRF01_AE. The near full-length genome was reverse transcripted and amplified in two halves with the 1 kb overlap regions. The PCR products were sequenced directly after purification. Sequence analysis showed that the majority of the genome was CRF01_AE, three fragments of C subtype were inserted along the genome in gag and pol region. This is the first report of a novel recombination involving subtype C and CRF01_AE in Yunnan, China. More work is needed to check the epidemiologic significance of the new recombination.