Science, Vol 255, Issue 5048, 1134-1137
Copyright © 1992 by American Association for the Advancement of Science
Selective transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 variants from mothers to infants
SM Wolinsky,
CM Wike,
BT Korber,
C Hutto,
WP Parks,
LL Rosenblum,
KJ Kunstman,
MR Furtado,
and
JL Munoz
Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL 60611.
Multiple human immunodeficiency virus type-1 sequences from the V3 and V4-V5 regions of the envelope gene were analyzed from three mother-infant pairs. The infants' viral sequences were less diverse than those of their mothers. In two pairs, a proviral form infrequently found in the mother predominated in her infant. A conserved N-linked glycosylation site within the V3 region, present in each mother's sequence set, was absent in all of the infants' sequence sets. These findings demonstrate that a minor subset of maternal virus is transmitted to the infant.
