Molecular Mechanisms of Recombination Restriction in the Envelope Gene of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Figure 3
Functionality of recombinant envelope proteins.
Functionality of the recombinant proteins as a function of the breakpoint position (in nucleotides) along the env gene. Each individual recombinant tested is indicated by a circle. Error bars indicate standard deviations observed in four independent experiments. The luciferase values that were determined for the four parental strains used to generate the recombinants are represented, as a frame of reference, by lilac bars on the right. The six recombination-prone regions defined in Figure 2B are shaded in pale blue and annotated accordingly above the graph. The value of loss of functionality approximated for each region is given in bold in the top part of the graph. Three M/O inter-type recombinants were also tested (AO456, AO7810, and AO8090, breakpoint positions 6508, 7810, and 8090, respectively, of the HXB2 reference strain), resulting in a complete loss of functionality, probably due to the higher sequence divergence between the parental isolates. In order to preserve the homogeneity of the dataset to intersubtype recombinants, these recombinants are neither presented in the figure, nor were considered for the calculation of the average functionality of the recombinants, described in the main text.