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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Global spread and evolutionary trajectories of HIV-1 CRF01_AE: Insights from phylogenetic analysis

  • Xingguang Li1
  • David Jorgensen2
  • Haizhou Liu3
  • Qing Nie4
  • Callum Bates5
  • Quan Gu6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Ningbo No 2 Hospital, Ningbo, China
  2. 2Guoke Ningbo Life Science and Health Industry Research Institute, Ningbo, China
  3. 3MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
  4. 4State Key Laboratory of Virology and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
  5. 5Microbiology Laboratory, Weifang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Weifang, China
  6. 6MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom
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Abstract

HIV-1 circulating recombinant form (CRF) 01_AE has driven major HIV epidemics across Southeast and East Asia for decades, yet the mechanisms underlying its long-term regional spread remain poorly resolved. Using near-complete genome sequences and Bayesian phylogeographic reconstruction, we traced the evolutionary history of CRF01_AE from its origin in Central Africa to its expansion across Asia. Our results uncover a decades-long transmission corridor linking Africa, Thailand, and China, in which CRF01_AE was introduced into Thailand in the early 1980s and subsequently disseminated across Southeast Asia and into China through repeated cross-border movements. Many viral lineages circulated for years before detection, revealing substantial cryptic transmission prior to surveillance. Once established, transmission clusters persisted for decades, sustaining local epidemics long after their initial introduction. These findings highlight the public health importance of early molecular surveillance and coordinated regional strategies to detect emerging lineages and interrupt cross-border transmission.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{li2026global,
  title = {{Global spread and evolutionary trajectories of HIV-1 CRF01_AE: Insights from phylogenetic analysis}},
  author = {Xingguang Li and David Jorgensen and Haizhou Liu and Qing Nie and Callum Bates and Quan Gu},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0360404},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360404},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Global spread and evolutionary trajectories of HIV-1 CRF01_AE: Insights from phylogenetic analysis
AU  - Xingguang Li
AU  - David Jorgensen
AU  - Haizhou Liu
AU  - Qing Nie
AU  - Callum Bates
AU  - Quan Gu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/08
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0360404
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360404
AB  - HIV-1 circulating recombinant form (CRF) 01_AE has driven major HIV epidemics across Southeast and East Asia for decades, yet the mechanisms underlying its long-term regional spread remain poorly resolved. Using near-complete genome sequences and Bayesian phylogeographic reconstruction, we traced the evolutionary history of CRF01_AE from its origin in Central Africa to its expansion across Asia. Our results uncover a decades-long transmission corridor linking Africa, Thailand, and China, in which CRF01_AE was introduced into Thailand in the early 1980s and subsequently disseminated across Southeast Asia and into China through repeated cross-border movements. Many viral lineages circulated for years before detection, revealing substantial cryptic transmission prior to surveillance. Once established, transmission clusters persisted for decades, sustaining local epidemics long after their initial introduction. These findings highlight the public health importance of early molecular surveillance and coordinated regional strategies to detect emerging lineages and interrupt cross-border transmission.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -