TY - JOUR

T1 - Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960

AU - Worobey, Michael

AU - Gemmel, Marlea

AU - Teuwen, Dirk E

AU - Haselkorn, Tamara

AU - Kunstman, Kevin

AU - Bunce, Michael

AU - Muyembe, Jean-Jacques

AU - Kabongo, Jean-Marie M

AU - Kalengayi, Raphaël M

AU - Van Marck, Eric

AU - Gilbert, M Thomas P

AU - Wolinsky, Steven M

N1 - Keywords: Adult; Canada; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Evolution, Molecular; Female; Genetic Variation; HIV Infections; HIV-1; History, 20th Century; Humans; Male; Microtomy; Molecular Sequence Data; Paraffin Embedding; Phylogeny; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sequence Analysis, DNA

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) sequences that pre-date the recognition of AIDS are critical to defining the time of origin and the timescale of virus evolution. A viral sequence from 1959 (ZR59) is the oldest known HIV-1 infection. Other historically documented sequences, important calibration points to convert evolutionary distance into time, are lacking, however; ZR59 is the only one sampled before 1976. Here we report the amplification and characterization of viral sequences from a Bouin's-fixed paraffin-embedded lymph node biopsy specimen obtained in 1960 from an adult female in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)), and we use them to conduct the first comparative evolutionary genetic study of early pre-AIDS epidemic HIV-1 group M viruses. Phylogenetic analyses position this viral sequence (DRC60) closest to the ancestral node of subtype A (excluding A2). Relaxed molecular clock analyses incorporating DRC60 and ZR59 date the most recent common ancestor of the M group to near the beginning of the twentieth century. The sizeable genetic distance between DRC60 and ZR59 directly demonstrates that diversification of HIV-1 in west-central Africa occurred long before the recognized AIDS pandemic. The recovery of viral gene sequences from decades-old paraffin-embedded tissues opens the door to a detailed palaeovirological investigation of the evolutionary history of HIV-1 that is not accessible by other methods.

AB - Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) sequences that pre-date the recognition of AIDS are critical to defining the time of origin and the timescale of virus evolution. A viral sequence from 1959 (ZR59) is the oldest known HIV-1 infection. Other historically documented sequences, important calibration points to convert evolutionary distance into time, are lacking, however; ZR59 is the only one sampled before 1976. Here we report the amplification and characterization of viral sequences from a Bouin's-fixed paraffin-embedded lymph node biopsy specimen obtained in 1960 from an adult female in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)), and we use them to conduct the first comparative evolutionary genetic study of early pre-AIDS epidemic HIV-1 group M viruses. Phylogenetic analyses position this viral sequence (DRC60) closest to the ancestral node of subtype A (excluding A2). Relaxed molecular clock analyses incorporating DRC60 and ZR59 date the most recent common ancestor of the M group to near the beginning of the twentieth century. The sizeable genetic distance between DRC60 and ZR59 directly demonstrates that diversification of HIV-1 in west-central Africa occurred long before the recognized AIDS pandemic. The recovery of viral gene sequences from decades-old paraffin-embedded tissues opens the door to a detailed palaeovirological investigation of the evolutionary history of HIV-1 that is not accessible by other methods.

U2 - 10.1038/nature07390

DO - 10.1038/nature07390

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 18833279

VL - 455

SP - 661

EP - 664

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

IS - 7213

ER -