title: Role of the zinc fingers of HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein in maturation of genomic RNA.
abstract: The nucleocapsid protein of HIV-1 consists of two basic amino acid regions and two zinc fingers. We investigated the requirement of these domains for the structural conversion of a 39mer RNA covering the dimerization initiation site by using three peptides; wild-type NCp7, a mutant in which the two zinc fingers are mutated, and another mutant in which the two zinc fingers are deleted. The two mutants exhibited similar conversion activities to each other, which were lower than that of the wild-type, indicating that the two basic regions exhibit some activity for RNA chaperone, as we suggested before, and the zinc fingers enhance the efficiency of this activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Chiba Institute of Technology, 2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino-shi, Chiba 275-0016.
authors.forename: Seiki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koyanagi
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takaku
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gorelick
authors.forename: Gota
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kawai
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019281:Dimerization; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014764:Viral Proteins; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D054301:gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D015683:Gene Products, gag; C071884:NCP7 protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054301:gag Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus