title: An amino acid in the central catalytic domain of three retroviral integrases that affects target site selection in nonviral DNA.
abstract: Integrase can insert retroviral DNA into almost any site in cellular DNA; however, target site preferences are noted in vitro and in vivo. We recently demonstrated that amino acid 119, in the alpha2 helix of the central domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integrase, affected the choice of nonviral target DNA sites. We have now extended these findings to the integrases of a nonprimate lentivirus and a more distantly related alpharetrovirus. We found that substitutions at the analogous positions in visna virus integrase and Rous sarcoma virus integrase changed the target site preferences in five assays that monitor insertion into nonviral DNA. Thus, the importance of this protein residue in the selection of nonviral target DNA sites is likely to be a general property of retroviral integrases. Moreover, this amino acid might be part of the cellular DNA binding site on integrase proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033, USA.
authors.forename: Amy L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sudol
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katzman
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D001358:Avian Sarcoma Viruses / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D020134:Catalytic Domain / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D019426:Integrases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D016662:Virus Integration; D014790:Visna-maedi virus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D019426:Integrases