Document 3272
 DOCN  M94A3272
 TI    Analysis of HIV-1 nef gene sequences directly isolated from infected
       individuals.
 DT    9412
 AU    Kim SH; Kang MR; Lee MH; Huh JE; Shin Y; Kim DG; Kim TG; Cho MH; Kim S;
       Seoul National University, Korea.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):114 (abstract no. PA0076). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94369303
 AB    The nef gene is located near the 3' end of the HIV genome and overlaps
       the 3' long terminal repeat. Although the term nef is the acronym of
       negative factor, the proposed negative role of the nef gene has been
       challenged by us and others. It was recently reported that in rhesus
       monkeys, the nef gene of SIV is required for maintaining high virus
       loads and also for development of AIDS. Almost all HIV-1 strains used
       for studies on nef in the published works have been isolated in vitro by
       propagating virus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells or human
       CD4-positive cell lines. Therefore, these viruses may not contain the
       nef gene actually present in vivo. As one approach to understand the
       function of HIV-1 nef, we have been characterizing the nucleotide and
       corresponding protein sequences of nef genes directly isolated from
       infected individuals. The entire nef gene from 10 infected individuals
       in Korea was amplified by polymerase chain reaction, cloned, and
       sequenced. Our initial analysis showed that at the nucleotide level, the
       intraindividual variation ranged from 0 to 3% in most cases, while the
       interindividual variation was 2 to 20%. It appeared that the nef
       sequences from several infected individuals were closely related. Our
       results suggested that nucleotide sequences of nef from different
       individuals were highly variable, enough to distinguish between strains.
       We are currently studying implicaitons of these data for pathogenesis
       and epidemiology of HIV in Korea.
 DE    Animal  Base Sequence  *Genes, nef  Human  HIV
       Infections/EPIDEMIOLOGY/ETIOLOGY/*MICROBIOLOGY
       HIV-1/*GENETICS/*ISOLATION & PURIF  Korea/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Macaca mulatta
       Polymerase Chain Reaction  Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid  Simian
       Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/MICROBIOLOGY  SIV/GENETICS  Variation
       (Genetics)  MEETING ABSTRACT

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