We and others have reported that bnAbs are highly divergent from their putative germline Abs, and the germline Abs of known bnAbs lack measurable binding to wild-type HIV-1 Env [3, 4, 25–28], indicating that somatic maturation of the germline predecessor antibodies of HIV-1 bnAbs may not be initiated by HIV-1 infection or vaccination with Env. Here, ERVW-1 is linked to HIV-1 infection.