Rapid full-length genomic sequencing of two cytopathically heterogeneous Australian primary HIV-1 isolates

Two Australian HIV-1 isolates, derived from patient blood (HIV(MBC200)) and cerebrospinal fluid (HIV(MBC925)), were characterized after in vitro culture in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Although virus replication was similar, as measured by cell-free reverse transcriptase activity, only one of the two isolates (HIV-1(MCB200)) consistently induced cell syncytia and depleted the PBMC population of CD4+ cells by cell killing. A novel technique, devised for rapidly obtaining high-quality viral sequence data and the full-length genomic sequence of these two isolates, is presented. Analysis of the predicted sequence of the viral Env proteins provides correlates of the observed phenotypes. Phylogenetic analysis derived using near full-length sequence of these and other HIV-1 subtype B genomic sequences (including two other Australian isolates) shows a star-shaped phylogeny with each member having a similar genetic diversity. These data expand the database of genomic sequence available from well-characterized primary clinical isolates of HIV-1 using a novel rapid technique.