In this study, we sequenced the full-length HIV type 2 (HIV-2) long terminal repeat region from the proviral DNA of 23 HIV-2-infected individuals from the southern parts of India. We identified two different promoter variant strains circulating in this region along with the globally circulating common promoter variant. Seven sequences had an additional nuclear factor kappa-light chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) binding motif and the sequence from another subject showed one NF-κB and one RBE-III binding site. Phylogenetic and subtyping analyses revealed that the circulating strains comprised HIV-2 subtype A. The occurrence of two NF-κB binding sites in ∼30% of the sequences analyzed in our study prompts us to hypothesize that as in the case of HIV-1 subtype C viruses that possess additional κB sites, the two NF-κB HIV-2 variants might possess superior replication fitness because of the increased magnitude of transcription, thus leading to the expansion of these variants in the country.

中文翻译：

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全长HIV-2长末端重复序列的遗传特征：罕见的启动子变异体的鉴定。

在这项研究中，我们从印度南部的23名HIV-2感染者的原病毒DNA中测序了全长HIV 2型（HIV-2）长末端重复序列。我们确定了两个不同的启动子变异株，以及在全球范围内传播的共同启动子变异，在该区域中循环。七个序列具有激活的B细胞（NF-κB）结合基序的另一个核因子κ-轻链增强子，来自另一位受试者的序列显示了一个NF-κB和一个RBE-III结合位点。系统发育和亚型分析表明，流行株包含HIV-2亚型。在我们研究的大约30％的序列中，两个NF-κB结合位点的出现促使我们假设与HIV-1亚型一样具有其他κB位点的C病毒，