Cell Reports (Feb 2024)

Two-step evolution of HIV-1 budding system leading to pandemic in the human population

  • Yoriyuki Konno,
  • Keiya Uriu,
  • Takayuki Chikata,
  • Toru Takada,
  • Jun-ichi Kurita,
  • Mahoko Takahashi Ueda,
  • Saiful Islam,
  • Benjy Jek Yang Tan,
  • Jumpei Ito,
  • Hirofumi Aso,
  • Ryuichi Kumata,
  • Carolyn Williamson,
  • Shingo Iwami,
  • Masafumi Takiguchi,
  • Yoshifumi Nishimura,
  • Eiji Morita,
  • Yorifumi Satou,
  • So Nakagawa,
  • Yoshio Koyanagi,
  • Kei Sato

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 43, no. 2
p. 113697

Abstract

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Summary: The pandemic HIV-1, HIV-1 group M, emerged from a single spillover event of its ancestral lentivirus from a chimpanzee. During human-to-human spread worldwide, HIV-1 diversified into multiple subtypes. Here, our interdisciplinary investigation mainly sheds light on the evolutionary scenario of the viral budding system of HIV-1 subtype C (HIV-1C), a most successfully spread subtype. Of the two amino acid motifs for HIV-1 budding, the P(T/S)AP and YPxL motifs, HIV-1C loses the YPxL motif. Our data imply that HIV-1C might lose this motif to evade immune pressure. Additionally, the P(T/S)AP motif is duplicated dependently of the level of HIV-1 spread in the human population, and >20% of HIV-1C harbored the duplicated P(T/S)AP motif. We further show that the duplication of the P(T/S)AP motif is caused by the expansion of the CTG triplet repeat. Altogether, our results suggest that HIV-1 has experienced a two-step evolution of the viral budding process during human-to-human spread worldwide.

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