Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026

A Restriction Enzyme Based Cloning Method to Assess the In vitro Replication Capacity of HIV-1 Subtype C Gag-MJ4 Chimeric Viruses
Published on: August 31, 2014
Allelic histories: positive selection on a HIV-resistance allele
Michael P H Stumpf1, Hilde M Wilkinson-Herbots
1Department of Biological Sciences, Wolfson Building, Imperial College London, London, UK, SW7 2AZ. m.stumpf@imperial.ac.uk
Abstract:
The CCR5-Delta32 allele crucially determines the course of HIV infection and appears to be highly protective against the disease. Population genetic studies suggest that the allele has been under positive selection in Europe in the past. In a recent paper, Alison Galvani and Montgomery Slatkin collate the available evidence and use a mathematical model to strongly suggest that smallpox could have exerted sufficient selection pressure to explain the distribution of the allele across Europe. This is a beautiful example of the power of mathematical models in evolutionary genetics.
Related Concept Videos
Retrovirus Life Cycles
Viral Mutations
Frequency-dependent Selection
Size and Structure of Viral Genomes
Multiple Allele Traits
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon has three reading...

