title: Effect of substituting arabinonucleosides for deoxynucleotides in the DNA priming strand on the polymerase action of HIV-1 RT.
abstract: The ability of 5'-DNA-araN-3' chimeras to serve as primers during HIV-1 RT-catalyzed DNA synthesis was assessed. It is shown that while the structural changes imparted by the arabinose units are minimal, the biological outcome is significant. For example, a DNA strand with arabinocytidine (araC) at the 3'-terminus was found to serve as a primer of DNA synthesis but significant pausing of HIV-RT was observed after the addition of 4 dNTP's. This phenomenon was not observed for the analogous DNA primer containing a riboC unit or an all-DNA strand.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Noronha
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arion
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Parniak
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Damha
mesh_terms: D001087:Arabinonucleosides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000096:biosynthesis; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001087:Arabinonucleosides; D017931:DNA Primers; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D004247:DNA; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase