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HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2: Patterns in the evolution of two pandemic pathogens

  • Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA)
  • , Will Fischer
  • , Elena E. Giorgi
  • , Srirupa Chakraborty
  • , Kien Nguyen
  • , Tanmoy Bhattacharya
  • , James Theiler
  • , Pablo A. Goloboff
  • , Hyejin Yoon
  • , Werner Abfalterer
  • , Brian T. Foley
  • , Houriiyah Tegally
  • , James Emmanuel San
  • , Tulio de Oliveira
  • , Eduan Wilkinson
  • , Nokukhanya Msomi
  • , Arash Iranzadeh
  • , Vagner Fonseca
  • , Deelan Doolabh
  • , Koleka Mlisana
  • Anne von Gottberg, Sibongile Walaza, Mushal Allam, Arshad Ismail, Thabo Mohale, Allison J. Glass, Susan Engelbrecht, Gert Van Zyl, Wolfgang Preiser, Francesco Petruccione, Alex Sigal, Diana Hardie, Gert Marais, Marvin Hsiao, Stephen Korsman, Mary Ann Davies, Lynn Tyers, Innocent Mudau, Denis York, Caroline Maslo, Dominique Goedhals, Shareef Abrahams, Oluwakemi Laguda-Akingba, Arghavan Alisoltani-Dehkordi, Adam Godzik, Constantinos Kurt Wibmer, Bryan Trevor Sewell, José Lourenço, Sergei L.Kosakovsky Pond, Steven Weaver, Marta Giovanetti

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Humanity is currently facing the challenge of two devastating pandemics caused by two very different RNA viruses: HIV-1, which has been with us for decades, and SARS-CoV-2, which has swept the world in the course of a single year. The same evolutionary strategies that drive HIV-1 evolution are at play in SARS-CoV-2. Single nucleotide mutations, multi-base insertions and deletions, recombination, and variation in surface glycans all generate the variability that, guided by natural selection, enables both HIV-1’s extraordinary diversity and SARS-CoV-2’s slower pace of mutation accumulation. Even though SARS-CoV-2 diversity is more limited, recently emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants carry Spike mutations that have important phenotypic consequences in terms of both antibody resistance and enhanced infectivity. We review and compare how these mutational patterns manifest in these two distinct viruses to provide the variability that fuels their evolution by natural selection.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1093-1110
Number of pages18
JournalCell Host and Microbe
Volume29
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 14 Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

  • HIV-1
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • evolution
  • glycosylation
  • immune escape
  • insertions and deletions
  • recombination

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