Figure 3

Composition, variation, and activity of the cohort's tat quasispecies over time. (A) Multiple one-exon tat clones from donor A, recipient B and recipient C were sequenced and their amino acid sequences were compared at each time point (represented as columns). Identical amino acid sequences were classed together as clones and are represented above as boxes within the columns. The numbers within the columns indicate the total number of tat clones successfully sequenced for each time point. See Figure 1 for the clones' amino acid sequences. (B) Relative transactivation abilities of the cohort tat clones. Columns are transactivated luciferase output normalised against constitutive β-galactosidase output and expressed relative to a positive control for transactivation (the SF2 clone of one-exon tat). The values at the bases of the columns indicate the number of times that particular Tat amino acid sequence was scored in the entire sample set. An asterisk indicates p < 0.01 for the null hypothesis compared to clone A1-1. Results are means and standard deviations of three independent experiments.