A case of infection with a candidate new subtype, tentatively termed M, of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 of group M

Background

HIV-1 emergence is estimated to have occurred c.a. 1920s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Only its group M is pandemic. It currently comprises 10 established subtypes. Here, we describe a near-complete HIV-1 genome that meets the definition of a candidate new subtype.

Methods

In-house-designed or commercial PCR primers were used for amplification of HIV-1 DNA from blood. Sequencing used Sanger and next-generation (Oxford Nanopore, Illumina) technologies. Bioinformatic analyses used Samtools, Minimap2, Viroscore, Bootscan, IQ-TREE, iTOL, MEGA12, and Nextclade. Structural analyses used Mutate, HyperChem, and Molegro Molecular Viewer.

Results