The rapid spread of recombinants during a natural in vitro infection with two human immunodeficiency virus type 1 strains
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 1, 2026

Pairwise Growth Competition Assay for Determining the Replication Fitness of Human Immunodeficiency Viruses
Published on: May 4, 2015
T Kuwata1, Y Miyazaki, T Igarashi
1Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Japan.
Abstract:
We quantified a population of recombinants in a natural in vitro infection, using wild-type viruses without any pressure. It was found that recombinants emerged early after infection and constituted more than 20% of the whole proviral population 15 days after infection. Furthermore, recombinants were isolated as infectious viruses by simple limiting dilution. These results imply that, in addition to the high mutation rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), recombination among HIV-1 strains plays a significant part in the development of the high diversity of HIV-1.
Related Concept Videos
Viral Recombination
Viral Mutations
Retroviruses
Retrovirus Life Cycles

