title: Crystal structure of the HIV-1 integrase catalytic core and C-terminal domains: a model for viral DNA binding.
abstract: Insolubility of full-length HIV-1 integrase (IN) limited previous structure analyses to individual domains. By introducing five point mutations, we engineered a more soluble IN that allowed us to generate multidomain HIV-1 IN crystals. The first multidomain HIV-1 IN structure is reported. It incorporates the catalytic core and C-terminal domains (residues 52-288). The structure resolved to 2.8 A is a Y-shaped dimer. Within the dimer, the catalytic core domains form the only dimer interface, and the C-terminal domains are located 55 A apart. A 26-aa alpha-helix, alpha6, links the C-terminal domain to the catalytic core. A kink in one of the two alpha6 helices occurs near a known proteolytic site, suggesting that it may act as a flexible elbow to reorient the domains during the integration process. Two proteins that bind DNA in a sequence-independent manner are structurally homologous to the HIV-1 IN C-terminal domain, suggesting a similar protein-DNA interaction in which the IN C-terminal domain may serve to bind, bend, and orient viral DNA during integration. A strip of positively charged amino acids contributed by both monomers emerges from each active site of the dimer, suggesting a minimally dimeric platform for binding each viral DNA end. The crystal structure of the isolated catalytic core domain (residues 52-210), independently determined at 1.6-A resolution, is identical to the core domain within the two-domain 52-288 structure.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Laboratory Medicine, and Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. stroud@msg.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krucinski
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Miercke
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Finer-Moore
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Leavitt
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Stroud
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D002460:Cell Line; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D019427:HIV Integrase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D019427:HIV Integrase