Huthoff Hendrik, Bugala Katarzyna, Barciszewski Jan, Berkhout Ben
Department of Human Retrovirology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 15, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2003 Sep 1;31(17):5186-94. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkg714.
Initiation of reverse transcription is a complex and regulated process in all retroviruses. Several base pairing interactions have been proposed to occur between the HIV-1 RNA genome and the specific tRNA(lys3) primer. The tRNA primer can form up to 21 bp with the primer binding site (PBS), and an additional 8 bp interaction may form between the primer activation signal (PAS) in the HIV-1 RNA and sequences within the T(Psi)C arm of the tRNA. The latter interaction is further analyzed in this in vitro study with mutant RNA transcripts that were designed to preclude the PAS interaction. These mutant transcripts are able to efficiently bind the tRNA primer, but they exhibit a profound defect at initiating reverse transcription. This defect is specific for the tRNA primer because it is not observed for PBS-bound DNA oligonucleotide primers. These results reinforce the model of regulated reverse transcription in which the PAS-mediated interaction is critical for efficient initiation.
在所有逆转录病毒中,逆转录的起始都是一个复杂且受调控的过程。有人提出,HIV-1 RNA基因组与特定的tRNA(lys3)引物之间会发生几种碱基配对相互作用。tRNA引物可与引物结合位点(PBS)形成多达21个碱基对,并且HIV-1 RNA中的引物激活信号(PAS)与tRNA的T(Psi)C臂内的序列之间可能形成另外8个碱基对的相互作用。在这项体外研究中,使用设计用于排除PAS相互作用的突变RNA转录本对后一种相互作用进行了进一步分析。这些突变转录本能够有效地结合tRNA引物,但它们在起始逆转录时表现出严重缺陷。这种缺陷对tRNA引物具有特异性,因为对于与PBS结合的DNA寡核苷酸引物未观察到这种缺陷。这些结果强化了调控逆转录的模型,其中PAS介导的相互作用对于有效起始至关重要。