title: Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A activity and HIV-1 Rev function.
abstract: Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF-5A) is the only cellular protein known to contain the unusual amino acid hypusine, a modification that appears to be required for cell proliferation. This hypusine-modified protein stimulates synthesis of methionyl-puromycin in an in vitro assay which mimics the formation of the first peptide bond during protein synthesis, although the exact role of eIF-5A in vivo is still unknown. The unexpected finding that eIF-5A is a cellular cofactor of the HIV-1 Rev trans-activator protein may, however, provide a novel opportunity to reveal precisely what function eIF-5A performs in eukaryotic cells. In this review article, we first present a brief description of HIV-1 Rev function, followed by an overview of the data that identified eIF-5A as a Rev cofactor and, finally, discuss novel findings with respect to cellular eIF-5A activities.
authors.affiliation: Novartis Research Institute, Department of Immunodermatology, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bevec
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hauber
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015694:Gene Products, rev / Q000502:physiology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010448:Peptide Initiation Factors / Q000502:physiology*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014779:Virus Replication; D054321:rev Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; D000097574:Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 5A
chemical_list: D015694:Gene Products, rev; D010448:Peptide Initiation Factors; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D054321:rev Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; D000097574:Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 5A