title: Human immunodeficiency virus nucleocapsid protein accelerates strand transfer of the terminally redundant sequences involved in reverse transcription.
abstract: During the initial stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, 5'-terminally redundant (R') DNA, the minus strand synthesized as the complement of the 5'-long terminal repeat (LTR) terminal redundancy, must anneal to the 3'-LTR RNA to enable template transfer. The (R')DNA sequences contain the site involved in the tat-TAR interaction and extensive secondary structures that strongly interfere with annealing. The novel annealing reaction between (R')DNA and 3'-LTR RNA follows first-order kinetics, consistent with an unusually slow unfolding of the secondary structure as the rate-limiting step followed by a more rapid nucleation step. The HIV nucleocapsid protein accelerates the annealing reaction 3000-fold under optimal conditions. This acceleration may be necessary for strand transfer to efficiently occur in vivo and may provide a target for anti-HIV chemotherapeutic agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80262.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: McHenry
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000502:physiology*; D016325:HIV Long Terminal Repeat; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000254:growth & development*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007700:Kinetics; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D009695:Nucleic Acid Renaturation; D011485:Protein Binding; D011533:Proviruses / Q000378:metabolism; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D012367:RNA, Viral