Scientists say they have decoded¹ the entire genetic² content of the HIV-1 virus, a key source of Aids infection.

科学家称他们已经解码了整个HIV-1病毒的基因内容，这是一个艾滋病传染的关键因素。

The team hope their work will pave the way to new treatments

They hope this will pave the way to a greater understanding of how the virus operates, and potentially accelerate the development of drug treatments.

HIV carries its genetic information in more complicated structures than some other viruses.

The US research, published in Nature, may allow scientists the chance to look at the information buried inside.

HIV, like the viruses which cause influenza³, hepatitis C（丙型肝炎） and polio（小儿麻痹症）, carries its genetic information as single-stranded RNA rather than double-stranded DNA⁴.

The information enclosed in DNA is encoded in a relatively⁵ simple way, but in RNA this is more complex.

RNA is able to fold into intricate（复杂的，错综的） patterns and structures. Therefore decoding⁶ a full genome opens up genetic information that was not previously⁷ accessible, and may hold answers to why the virus acts as it does.

The team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel⁸ Hill said they planned to use the information to see if they could make tiny changes to the virus.

"If it doesn't grow as well when you disrupt（分裂，瓦解） the virus with mutations（变化，转变）, then you know you've mutated or affected⁹ something that was important to the virus," says Ron Swanstrom, professor of microbiology and immunology.

"We are also beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host."

Deep inside

Dr David Robertson from the University of Manchester welcomed this "definitive¹⁰ analysis".

"What this may reveal is some of the proteins operating at a level below the structures, which may have all sorts of functions within the virus.

"More generally, if we can unpick the structures then we can compare the systems of different viruses and gain new understanding of how they work."

Keith Alcorn of the HIV information service NAM added: "Encouraging the virus to mutate is not a new idea, but it is one of a number of options on the table.

"How important this information will be for the development of new drugs remains¹¹ to be seen, but it is a useful addition to what we know."