Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, Brownsville, TX, USA.
BMC Evol Biol. 2011 Mar 8;11:62. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-62.
Replicate experiments are often difficult to find in evolutionary biology, as this field is inherently an historical science. However, viruses, bacteria and phages provide opportunities to study evolution in both natural and experimental contexts, due to their accelerated rates of evolution and short generation times. Here we investigate HIV-1 evolution by using a natural model represented by monozygotic twins infected synchronically at birth with an HIV-1 population from a shared blood transfusion source. We explore the evolutionary processes and population dynamics that shape viral diversity of HIV in these monozygotic twins.
Despite the identical host genetic backdrop of monozygotic twins and the identical source and timing of the HIV-1 inoculation, the resulting HIV populations differed in genetic diversity, growth rate, recombination rate, and selection pressure between the two infected twins.
Our study shows that the outcome of evolution is strikingly different between these two "replicates" of viral evolution. Given the identical starting points at infection, our results support the impact of random epigenetic selection in early infection dynamics. Our data also emphasize the need for a better understanding of the impact of host-virus interactions in viral evolution.
在进化生物学中，重复实验往往难以找到，因为该领域本质上是一门历史科学。然而，病毒、细菌和噬菌体由于其进化速度快、世代时间短，为在自然和实验环境中研究进化提供了机会。在这里，我们通过使用来自同一血液来源的 HIV-1 群体同步感染同卵双胞胎的自然模型来研究 HIV-1 的进化。我们探索了塑造这些同卵双胞胎中 HIV 病毒多样性的进化过程和群体动态。
尽管同卵双胞胎的宿主遗传背景相同，HIV-1 的接种来源和时间也相同，但感染的两个双胞胎之间 HIV 群体的遗传多样性、增长率、重组率和选择压力存在差异。
我们的研究表明，这两个病毒进化“复制品”的进化结果截然不同。鉴于感染时的起点相同，我们的结果支持随机表观遗传选择在早期感染动力学中的影响。我们的数据还强调了需要更好地理解宿主-病毒相互作用在病毒进化中的影响。
