Phylogenetics in HIV transmission: taking within-host diversity into account

Within-host diversity complicates transmission models because it recognizes that between-host virus phylogenies are not identical to the transmission history among the infected hosts. This review presents the biological and theoretical foundations for recent development in this field, and shows that modern phylodynamic methods are capable of inferring realistic transmission histories from HIV sequence data.

Transmission of single or multiple genetic variants from a donor's HIV population results in donor-recipient phylogenies with combinations of monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic patterns. Large-scale simulations and analyses of many real HIV datasets have established that transmission direction, directness, or common source often can be inferred based on HIV sequence data. Phylodynamic reconstruction of HIV transmissions that include within-host HIV diversity have recently been established and made available in several software packages.

Phylodynamic methods that include realistic features of HIV genetic diversification have come of age, significantly improving inference of key epidemiological parameters. This opens the door to more accurate surveillance and better-informed prevention campaigns.