Cytotoxicity of HIV- segments expressed in.

The failed attempt to express HIV- in led to the investigation of HIV- segments, which is responsible for the toxicity to cells. A series of deletion mutants containing different regions of gene were constructed and expressed in BL21(DE3) strain. After IPTG induction, the high mortality of host bacteria was observed in host bacteria carrying the deletion mutants of gene except for those transformed with pET-H; coordinately, the mRNA transcripts of the was rapidly decreased; and the release of [H]uridine increased upon induction. All these data suggested that GP41 protein has a cytotoxic effect on, and it is the cytotoxicity of the gene product that contributes to the high mortality when expressed in.