The identification of a novel HIV-1 CRF01_AE/B recombinant using the near full length genome in Jiangsu Province, China.

CRF01_AE and subtype B are the two major HIV-1 clades circulating in China. Heterosexual transmission is the predominant route for the spread of HIV and heterosexuals often include men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users. Furthermore, many kinds of circulating recombinant forms (CRF) and unique recombinant forms (URF) between CRF01_AE and subtype B were recently identified in Southeast Asia. Therefore it is inevitable that the new recombinant of CRF01_AE/B will emerge among them. Here we identified a novel recombinant of CRF01_AE/B, isolated from heterosexuals, which has a distinctly different genome structure from other CRF01Bs and URFs reported before. The analysis of the near full-length sequence of JS2011001 shows that it is composed of at least five interlaced CRF01_AE and B segments. Recently, many kinds of URFs and CRFs began to prevail within a short period in China, which implies that a mix of HIV-1 infections is common in China and more attention should focus on it.