Functional Incompatibility between the Generic NF-κB Motif and a Subtype-Specific Sp1III Element Drives the Formation of the HIV-1 Subtype C Viral Promoter

What is it about?

HIV-1 has many genetic families. Family C is responsible for half of the global infections, mostly found in India, China, and Africa. Could the replication success of the C family a chance event or is there a molecular or biological explanation? To find an answer to this question, we examined the viral promoter of HIV-1 C family in this work. In HIV, a single promoter controls the expression of all the viral proteins. Any important molecular difference in the promoter, therefore, can have a big impact on the relative success of the viral families. That is what we have found: that the viral promoter of the C family has evolved differently and probably functions differently.

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Why is it important?

Different families of HIV-1 have different molecular and biological properties. These differences can determine which family will be successful overall in establishing the regional epidemics. Viruses keep evolving by introducing changes to their genetic sequences. These genetic changes can alter their biological properties to give the altered viruses a big advantage. It is, therefore, necessary to understand what kind of genetic signatures determine different biological properties. By examining different HIV-1 families, and comparing their molecular and biological properties, we can understand the replication properties, possible evolution trajectories more effectively. Studying and comparing different HIV-1 families is important to understand HIV more intimately so that we can hopefully devise the viral control strategies more efficiently.

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