Identification and Genomic Characterization of a Novel HIV-1 Unique Recombinant Form (CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC) in Zhejiang Province, China

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Mutation and recombination are important mechanisms leading to the frequent evolution and genetic diversity of HIV-1. In this study, we identified the near full-length genomic characterization of a novel HIV-1 unique recombinant form (URF) strain (Sample ID: ZJ20202195/ZJ/CHN/2020, hereafter referred to as ZJ20202195) isolated during the HIV-1 molecular surveillance in 2020 in Zhejiang Province, China, through different recombination analysis tools and phylogenetic analysis. Our results amply proved that the near full-length genome (NFLG) sequence of ZJ20202195 was a novel HIV-1 URF consisted CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC subtype, and delimited three recombinant segments, of which the Segment I (HXB2:776–5559 nucleotide (nt)) and Segment III (HXB2:6224–9412 nt) were mainly originated from CRF01_AE cluster g4a strains prevalent in China, and Segment II (HXB2:5560–6223 nt) was from CRF07_BC subtype. Overall, our findings provided insight and scientific basis into the genetic diversity and accurate determination of HIV-1 recombinant strains in China.