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Objective: To gain molecular insights into different HIV-1 strains present in two different states of India, nucleotide sequences derived from the env region of four HIV-1 strains were analysed., Design: HIV-1 was isolated from high-risk patients from the states of Maharashtra (city of Bombay) and Goa. The molecular analysis of the env region encompassed all variable domains of the external glycoprotein, gp120., Methods: Genomic DNA from cultured cells infected with each of the four Indian HIV-1 strains independently was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR fragments were cloned and sequenced and a phylogenetic tree constructed., Results: All four Indian HIV-1 sequences were closely related to each other. The closest related sequence to them was from a South African isolate, HIV-1NOF, with a homology of 85-87%. In the phylogenetic tree, the Indian and the South African HIV-1 sequences cluster together and constitute a subtype different from the North American/European, Central African, Uganda/Rwanda and Northern Thailand subtypes. Interestingly, the viruses of this subtype are characterized by an additional potential N-glycosylation site C-terminal to the CD4-binding domain., Conclusion: The low variation between the HIV-1 sequences from randomly chosen individuals from high-risk cohorts in two Indian states suggests a rapid and recent spread of HIV and, possibly, introduction of the virus by the same route, most probably heterosexual transmission. The rapid spread of HIV-1 variants in India, which form a subgroup of their own together with a South African strain, necessitate consideration of these strains in vaccine development.

The Escherichia coli-derived tet regulatory elements from Tn10 have been used to construct vectors allowing the regulated, inducible, high-level expression of foreign genes in Bacillus subtilis. While the wild-type tet promoters are inactive in B. subtilis, a synthetic mutant tet sequence with improved promoter consensus sequences and upstream poly A blocks shows activity in B. subtilis. The expression of an indicator cat gene is inducible by sublethal amounts of tetracycline, indicating that the Tet repressor protein and the tet operator sequences are functional. However, the inducibility and maximal expression are not sufficient in this construct. To improve these properties a tet operator sequence was placed between the -35 and -10 boxes of the B. subtilis-derived very strong xyl promoter. In the presence of a tetR gene this construct is about 100-fold inducible and has high promoter strength, but some basal expression. This is avoided by placing a second tet operator downstream resulting in no detectable basal expression at the expense of reduced inducibility. Using the system with a single tet operator inducible expression of glucose dehydrogenase from B. megaterium was obtained at a very high level, and inducible expression of human single-chain urokinase-like plasminogen activator was achieved at the same level as in E. coli. Unlike in E. coli, the product was not degraded up to 4 h after induction in B. subtilis. These results demonstrate that the regulated expression vector described here should be very useful for production of foreign gene products from B. subtilis cultures.