HIV-1 Group M Conserved Elements Vaccine
Figure 1
Conservation of M Group Sequences across HIV-1 Proteins
The full lengths of each of the viral proteins containing 1st and/or 2nd tier CE are shown. The histogram indicates the tier of conservation for each segment of at least eight AAs in length, with tier number shown on the y-axis. 1st tier segments correspond to segments at least eight AAs long in which the AA at each site is found in more than 98% of HIVDB database sequences. 2nd tier include sites at which the most common AA is found in less than 98% of sequences in the database, but at which two AAs together make up more than 99% of the AAs found at that site in the database. For comparison, additional tiers of potential use for vaccine design are shown. 3rd tier expands the set to include two variable sites, and 4th tier includes n variable sites, each of which satisfy the criteria of having two AAs that together make up more than 99% of the AAs in the database. The 5th tier corresponds to peptides that have n variable sites that satisfy the criteria for 4th tier, but the requirement for conservation encompassed by the two AAs at each site is relaxed to more than 98%.