Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
RNA Biol. 2010 Nov-Dec;7(6):754-74. doi: 10.4161/rna.7.6.14115. Epub 2010 Nov 1.
The HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein (NC) is a nucleic acid chaperone, which remodels nucleic acid structures so that the most thermodynamically stable conformations are formed. This activity is essential for virus replication and has a critical role in mediating highly specific and efficient reverse transcription. NC's function in this process depends upon three properties: (1) ability to aggregate nucleic acids; (2) moderate duplex destabilization activity; and (3) rapid on-off binding kinetics. Here, we present a detailed molecular analysis of the individual events that occur during viral DNA synthesis and show how NC's properties are important for almost every step in the pathway. Finally, we also review biological aspects of reverse transcription during infection and the interplay between NC, reverse transcriptase, and human APOBEC3G, an HIV-1 restriction factor that inhibits reverse transcription and virus replication in the absence of the HIV-1 Vif protein.
HIV-1 核衣壳蛋白 (NC) 是一种核酸伴侣，它重塑核酸结构，使最具热力学稳定性的构象得以形成。这种活性对于病毒复制至关重要，并在介导高度特异性和高效逆转录中起着关键作用。NC 在这个过程中的功能取决于三个特性：（1）能够聚集核酸；（2）适度的双链体去稳定化活性；（3）快速的开-关结合动力学。在这里，我们对病毒 DNA 合成过程中发生的各个事件进行了详细的分子分析，并展示了 NC 的特性如何对途径中的几乎每一步都很重要。最后，我们还回顾了感染过程中逆转录的生物学方面，以及 NC、逆转录酶和人类 APOBEC3G 之间的相互作用，APOBEC3G 是一种 HIV-1 限制因子，在没有 HIV-1 Vif 蛋白的情况下，它可以抑制逆转录和病毒复制。
