Follow-up study of intrahost HIV type 2 variability reveals discontinuous evolution of C2V3 sequences

Sequence change dynamics in the highly polymorphic C2V3 region of the envel ope glycoprotein gp105 coding sequence of HIV-2 was studied for two HIV-2 s eropositive Guinean individuals over a 5-year period. Proviral DNA was ampl ified by PCR from uncultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), clo ned, and sequenced. Amino acid sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed distinct viral populations for the three collected samples (1992, 1 995, and 1997) for both individuals. A discontinuous replacement of sequenc es suggests activation of latent viruses present in reservoirs, a process t hat has been documented for the HIV-1 infection but unreported so far for H IV-2. The nucleotide sequences presented in this work have been assigned ac cession numbers AJ400276 to AJ400319.