During studies examining the rate of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (H
IV-1) mutation in a single cycle of replication, the 5' long terminal repea
t of one progeny provirus was found to contain an insertion of 147 bp inclu
ding an entire tRNA(3)(Lys) sequence as well as an additional 66 bp inserti
on of nonviral origin. Database searches revealed that 65 of 66 bp aligned
with the human CpG island sequence found on chromosomes 6, 14, and 17. Ther
efore it seems probable that it is of human cellular sequence origin and wa
s transduced by HIV-1. This is the first demonstration that HIV-1 can captu
re a cellular sequence. The site of integration of the parental provirus wa
s mapped to chromosome 1p32.1. Sequence with homology to the transduced CpG
island was not found on chromosome 1, suggesting that the transduced cellu
lar sequence was not linked to the site of viral integration.