Genetic characterization of a novel HIV-1 CRF01_AE/ CRF07_BC recombinant form among men who have sex with men in Baoding City, Hebei Province, China

Abstract Nowadays, a large number of unique recombinant forms have been found among sexual transmission populations in China. This study reported a novel HIV-1 second-generation unique recombinant form (URF), which was isolated from an HIV-positive man named BD201AJ who was infected through men who have sex with men(MSM) in Baoding City, Hebei province, China. This is different from a CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC recombinant strain from Hebei province, in China. The analysis result of the near full length genomic characterization showed that the genome comprises at least twelve interlaced segments, including six CRF07_BC and six CRF01_AE segments, with CRF07_BC as the main framework. No similar breakpoints between our strain and the other strains in the Los Alamos HIV database were observed. This highlights the importance of monitoring HIV-1 molecular epidemiological characteristics and the ongoing generation of recombinant viruses may provide an important insight for future analysis the recombination mechanism of HIV-1.