HIV gene regulatory proteins tat and rev and their interactions with synthetic RNA.

Synthetic oligoribonucleotides have been prepared and annealed to form model RNA duplexes that mimic the high affinity RNA recognition sites for the HIV-1 tat and rev proteins. The contributions of individual functional groups on the model RNAs to the specificity of binding by their respective proteins were studied by use of oligoribonucleotides containing site-specifically modified nucleotides. Both tat and rev appear to recognise specifically a limited number of functional groups in the major groove of an RNA double helix distorted by virtue of unpaired or non-Watson-Crick paired nucleotides.