Ion, Cloning, and SequencingThe 1242 bp length of GBV-C including partial of E1 gene and entire E2 gene (positions 963?204 of the AF121950) from 10 HIV/GBV-C dual infection patients was amplified using Pyrobest DNA Polymerase (Takara, Japan). To examine PCR error from the DNA polymerase, a known sequence from empty vector pcDNA3.1 was PCR amplified, cloned and sequenced underGenotype DeterminationA total of 196 complete E2 nucleotide coding sequences representing 10 HIV/GBV-C co-infected patients were aligned using MEGA4.1 [30]. All the sequences generated in this study were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers JX458516?Figure 1. Geographic origin of samples in Hubei Province, China. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048417.gIntra-Host Dynamics of GBV-C in HIV PatientsTable 1. buy BMS 5 Primers used for GBV-C detection and genotyping.Primer 59-UTR UTR-F1 UTR-R1 UTR-F2 UTR-R2 E2 E2-F E2-OR E1fcon E2-IRaPolarity outer, forward outer, reverse inner, forward inner, reverse outer, forward outer, reverse inner, forward inner, reverseSequencea 59-CAGGGTTGGTAGGTCGTAA ATCC-39 59-CCTATTGGTCAAGAGAGACAT-39 59-GGTCAYCYTGGTAGCCACTATAGG-39 59-AAGAGAGACATTGWAGGGCGACGT-39 59-RGTGGGRRAGTGAGTTTTGGAGAT-39 59-GCCTCHGCCAGCTTCATCAGRTA-39 59-TGGGAAAGTGAGTTTTGGAGATGG-39 59-AAAYACAAARTCCARVAGCARCCA-Positionb 130?52 351?71 154?77 338?61 961?84 2214?236 963?86 2181?Amplicon length (bp)Mixed base code Y was used for the mixture of C and T; W for A and T; R for A and G; H for A, T and C; V for G, A and C; D for G, A and T. Nucleotide positions are numbered as for AF121950. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048417.tbJX458711. To determine the genotype affiliation of each sequence, reference sequences representing all the seven previously defined genotypes were retrieved from GenBank and were included in 18055761 the phylogenetic analysis. The neighbor-Joining tree was reconstructed under the maximum composite likelihood model implemented in MEGA. Using the same program the nodal supports were determined with 1000 bootstrap replicates.Within Host Evolutionary DynamicsFull length E2 sequence data were utilized to estimate molecular diversity indices, mismatch analysis, Tajima’s D, Fu’s F, and to reconstruct the Bayesian skyline plots. Prior to these Madrasin analyseis, six different recombination detection methods implemented in RDP3 software package [31] were used to test whether there was any evidence of recombination. The individual programs RDP 
[32], GENECONV [33], Bootscan [34], Maximum Chi [35], Chimaera [36], SiScan [37] and 3Seq [38], were implemented for the analysis. The recombinant sequences were excluded from the analysis. Arlequin ver 3.5 [39] was used for the estimation the molecular diversity indices such as nucleotide (p) diversities, the mean number of pairwise differences (d), Tajima’s D statistic [40] and Fu’s FS statistic [41] and to compute the frequency of pairwise differences to evaluate the hypothesis of sudden expansion [42]. The validity of expansion hypothesis was tested using a parametric bootstrap approach by simulations of 10,000 random samples [43]. A Bayesian MCMC approach under the clock model as implemented in BEAST ver. 1.6.2 [44] was used to determine the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of the GBvirus C in each patient. A rate of 3.961024 nucleotide substitutions per site per year, previously reported for GBV-C was used [45]. Phylogenies were evaluated using a chain length of 20 million states under HKY+G4. In each case, MCMC chains were run for sufficie.Ion, Cloning, and SequencingThe 1242 bp length of GBV-C including partial of E1 gene and entire E2 gene (positions 963?204 of the AF121950) from 10 HIV/GBV-C dual infection patients was amplified using Pyrobest DNA Polymerase (Takara, Japan). To examine PCR error from the DNA polymerase, a known sequence from empty vector pcDNA3.1 was PCR amplified, cloned and sequenced underGenotype DeterminationA total of 196 complete E2 nucleotide coding sequences representing 10 HIV/GBV-C co-infected patients were aligned using MEGA4.1 [30]. All the sequences generated in this study were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers JX458516?Figure 1. Geographic origin of samples in Hubei Province, China. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048417.gIntra-Host Dynamics of GBV-C in HIV PatientsTable 1. Primers used for GBV-C detection and genotyping.Primer 59-UTR UTR-F1 UTR-R1 UTR-F2 UTR-R2 E2 E2-F E2-OR E1fcon E2-IRaPolarity outer, forward outer, reverse inner, forward inner, reverse outer, forward outer, reverse inner, forward inner, reverseSequencea 59-CAGGGTTGGTAGGTCGTAA ATCC-39 59-CCTATTGGTCAAGAGAGACAT-39 59-GGTCAYCYTGGTAGCCACTATAGG-39 59-AAGAGAGACATTGWAGGGCGACGT-39 59-RGTGGGRRAGTGAGTTTTGGAGAT-39 59-GCCTCHGCCAGCTTCATCAGRTA-39 59-TGGGAAAGTGAGTTTTGGAGATGG-39 59-AAAYACAAARTCCARVAGCARCCA-Positionb 130?52 351?71 154?77 338?61 961?84 2214?236 963?86 2181?Amplicon length (bp)Mixed base code Y was used for the mixture of C and T; W for A and T; R for A and G; H for A, T and C; V for G, A and C; D for G, A and T. Nucleotide positions are numbered as for AF121950. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048417.tbJX458711. To determine the genotype affiliation of each sequence, reference sequences representing all the seven previously defined genotypes were retrieved from GenBank and were included in 18055761 the phylogenetic analysis. The neighbor-Joining tree was reconstructed under the maximum composite likelihood model implemented in MEGA. Using the same program the nodal supports were determined with 1000 bootstrap replicates.Within Host Evolutionary DynamicsFull length E2 sequence data were utilized to estimate molecular diversity indices, mismatch analysis, Tajima’s D, Fu’s F, and to reconstruct the Bayesian skyline plots. Prior to these analyseis, six different recombination detection methods implemented in RDP3 software package [31] were used to test whether there was any evidence of recombination. The individual programs RDP [32], GENECONV [33], Bootscan [34], Maximum Chi [35], Chimaera [36], SiScan [37] and 3Seq [38], were implemented for the analysis. The recombinant sequences were excluded from the analysis. Arlequin ver 3.5 [39] was used for the estimation the molecular diversity indices such as nucleotide (p) diversities, the mean number of pairwise differences (d), Tajima’s D statistic [40] and Fu’s FS statistic [41] and to compute the frequency of pairwise differences to evaluate the hypothesis of sudden expansion [42]. The validity of expansion hypothesis was tested using a parametric bootstrap approach by simulations of 10,000 random samples [43]. A Bayesian MCMC approach under the clock model as implemented in BEAST ver. 1.6.2 [44] was used to determine the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of the GBvirus C in 
each patient. A rate of 3.961024 nucleotide substitutions per site per year, previously reported for GBV-C was used [45]. Phylogenies were evaluated using a chain length of 20 million states under HKY+G4. In each case, MCMC chains were run for sufficie.
