Earlier studies in the 1990s indicate that human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtype B has been the predominant subtype among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Malaysia. More recent studies performed between 2003 and 2004, however, show a high prevalence of unique CRF01_AE/B intersubtype recombinants among IDUs. To determine the subtype distribution among IDUs in Kuala Lumpur prior to th...

BACKGROUND Several population-wide HIV-1 subtype distribution studies in Uganda have evaluated relatively healthy clinic patients. Given the differences in HIV-1 disease progression based on subtype, we examined HIV-1 subtype distribution and disease outcomes among hospitalized patients with severe sepsis. METHODS Patients with severe sepsis were enrolled at two hospitals in Uganda. Data coll...

BACKGROUND Designing an ideal vaccine against HIV-1 has been difficult due to enormous genetic variability as a result of high replication rate and lack of proofreading activity of reverse transcriptase leading to emergence of genetic variants and recombinants. Tat transactivates HIV-1 LTR, resulting in a remarkable increase in viral gene expression, and plays a vital role in pathogenesis. The ...

Genetic recombination is a major contributor to the ongoing diversification of HIV. It is clearly apparent that across the HIV-genome there are defined recombination hot and cold spots which tend to co-localise both with genomic secondary structures and with either inter-gene boundaries or intra-gene domain boundaries. There is also good evidence that most recombination breakpoints that are det...

HIV-1 group M strains are characterized into 9 pure subtypes and 48 circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). Recent studies have identified the presence of new HIV-1 recombinants in Hong Kong and their complexity continues to increase. This study aims to characterize the HIV-1 genetic diversity in Hong Kong. Phylogenetic analyses were performed by using HIV-1 pol sequences including protease and p...

The pattern of ocular disease produced in the rabbit eye by HSV-1 (F) and HSV-1(MP) strains and recombinants F(MP)A, F(MP)B, F(MP)C, F(MP)D, F(MP)E, and F(MP)F was studied. The characteristics of ocular herpetic disease such as morphology of dendritic ulcers, severity of epithelial disease and incidence and duration of stromal disease produced in the rabbit eye are genetically determined by the...

BACKGROUND The China-Myanmar border is a particularly interesting region that has very high prevalence of and considerable diversity of HIV-1 recombinants. Due to the transient nature of their work, long-distance truck drivers (LDTDs) have a comparatively high potential to become infected with HIV-1 and further spread virus to other individuals in the area they travel within. In this study, we ...

Prostatic development is induced by androgens acting via mesenchymal-epithelial interactions. Androgens elicit their morphogenetic effects by acting through androgen receptors (ARs) in urogenital sinus mesenchyme (UGM), which induces prostatic epithelial development. In adulthood reciprocal homeostatic stromal-epithelial interactions maintain functional differentiation and growth-quiescence. Te...

There are many naturally occurring variants at the Ml-a locus in barley that confer resistance to the powdery mildew fungus Erysiphe graminis f. sp. hordei. Since the Ml-a locus is bracketed by Hor-1 and Hor-2, genes that encode storage proteins in the endosperm, the Ml-a locus is amenable to fine structure analysis. Rare susceptible recombinants, as judged by exchange of flanking markers, were...