Near full-length genomic characterization of a HIV type 1 BC recombinant strain from Manipur, India

Genetic complexity of HIV-1 is brought about by recombination between HIV-1 subtypes which leads to the development of epidemiologically significant founder strains. In the present study, the near full-length genome sequence of an HIV-1 isolate from an injecting drug user of Manipur (India) was determined, which evidenced the presence of a novel HIV-1 BC recombinant strain. Near full-length genome was amplified by polymerase chain reaction using primer walking approach. The recombination break points were detected using bootscan and simplot analyses. This isolate exhibited a mosaic structure consisting of subtype C backbone with subtype B insertions at the upstream of pol gene (3026–3259) and the downstream of env gene which spanned till the nef gene (8183–8961). Phylogenetic relationships determined with neighbor-joining trees, revealed that the subtype C sequences clustered with sequences from Indian subtype C HIV-1 strains, and the subtype B sequences clustered with HIV-1 subtype B strains from Thailand. This finding may create a complex scenario of HIV-1 epidemic among the injecting drug users of Manipur in near future.