title: Role of murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate-binding site in retroviral replication and in vivo fidelity.
abstract: Retroviral populations exhibit a high evolutionary potential, giving rise to extensive genetic variation. Error-prone DNA synthesis catalyzed by reverse transcriptase (RT) generates variation in retroviral populations. Structural features within RTs are likely to contribute to the high rate of errors that occur during reverse transcription. We sought to determine whether amino acids within murine leukemia virus (MLV) RT that contact the deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) substrate are important for in vivo fidelity of reverse transcription. We utilized the previously described ANGIE P encapsidating cell line, which expresses the amphotropic MLV envelope and a retroviral vector (pGA-1). pGA-1 expresses the bacterial beta-galactosidase gene (lacZ), which serves as a reporter of mutations. Extensive mutagenesis was performed on residues likely to interact with the dNTP substrate, and the effects of these mutations on the fidelity of reverse transcription were determined. As expected, most substitution mutations of amino acids that directly interact with the dNTP substrate significantly reduced viral titers (>10,000-fold), indicating that these residues played a critical role in catalysis and viral replication. However, the D153A and A154S substitutions, which are predicted to affect the interactions with the triphosphate, resulted in statistically significant increases in the mutation rate. In addition, the conservative substitution F155W, which may affect interactions with the base and the ribose, increased the mutation rate 2.8-fold. Substitutions of residues in the vicinity of the dNTP-binding site also resulted in statistically significant decreases in fidelity (1. 3- to 2.4-fold). These results suggest that mutations of residues that contact the substrate dNTP can affect viral replication as well as alter the fidelity of reverse transcription.
authors.affiliation: Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center and Department of Biochemistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA.
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Halvas
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Svarovskaia
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Pathak
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002460:Cell Line; D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides / Q000378:metabolism*; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D007763:Lac Operon; D009052:Leukemia Virus, Murine / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014162:Transfection; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D003854:Deoxyribonucleotides; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase