Identification of a Novel HIV-1 Unique Recombinant Form Between B, CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC in Men Who Have Sex with Men in Guangxi, China.

B, CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC are three major HIV-1 subtypes circulating in China. Here we detected a novel CCR5-tropic HIV-1 recombinant virus (GX2016EU23), which was isolated from an HIV-1-infected man who had sex with men (MSM) in Guangxi, China. Phylogenetic analysis of the near full-length genome showed that GX2016EU23 consisted of at least seven segments, that is two B, two CRF01_AE, and three CRF07_BC segments. Recombinant breakpoints of GX2016EU23 were observed in the gag, pol, rev, and env regions. This is the first detection of a novel HIV-1 recombinant (B/CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC) in MSM in Guangxi. The emergence of this novel recombinant suggests the increasing genetic diversity of the HIV-1 epidemic among the MSM group in China.