Abstract
HIV-1 is already known to have an extremely fast mutation rate, but a new study shows it to be more than two orders of magnitude higher than previously believed, and that this is largely due to host cytidine deaminases. Read the Research Article.
Highlights
In a new study in PLOS Biology, José Cuevas, Ron Geller, Rafael Sanjuán, and colleagues measured the mutation rate of HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, in patients cells (Fig 1). They show that the HIV-1 mutation rate is far higher than previously thought, due mainly to the efforts of a cellular enzyme
The authors compared the mutation rate in HIV isolated from its cellular host to that of virus particles released into blood plasma
What led to the high rate of error? HIV has no ability to edit the copying mistakes made by its own reverse transcriptase, so some fraction of the mutations were likely viral in origin
Summary
In a new study in PLOS Biology, José Cuevas, Ron Geller, Rafael Sanjuán, and colleagues measured the mutation rate of HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, in patients cells (Fig 1). They show that the HIV-1 mutation rate is far higher than previously thought, due mainly to the efforts of a cellular enzyme. The high rate of mutation caused by the enzyme may protect the host from virulence but may promote evolution of HIV to escape that protection.
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