Human immunodeficiency virus fitness in vivo: calculations based on a single zidovudine resistance mutation at codon 215 of reverse transcriptase.

We monitored a subject newly infected with a zidovudine-resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 strain and found that in the absence of drug, the viral population with the resistance-conferring tyrosine (TAC) codon 215 of reverse transcriptase was gradually replaced. By using standard formulas to model the effects of selection at a single locus in an asexual haploid population, the relative fitness gain of the viral population with a single mutation at codon 215 creating a serine (TCC) was calculated. We concluded that a viral population with a serine at reverse transcriptase codon 215 conferring zidovudine sensitivity was between 0.4 and 2.3% more fit.