title: Adaptive evolution of primate TRIM5alpha, a gene restricting HIV-1 infection.
abstract: Recent studies showed that nonhuman primate TRIM5alpha can efficiently block HIV-1 infection in human cell lines. It can also restrict other retroviruses, therefore, suggested as a general defender against retrovirus infection. Here, we present an evolutionary analysis of TRIM5alpha in primates. Our results demonstrated that TRIM5alpha has been evolving rapidly in primates, which is likely caused by Darwinian positive selection. The SPRY domain of TRIM5alpha, which may be responsible for recognition of incoming viral capsids showed higher nonsynonymous/synonymous substitution ratios than the non-SPRY domain, indicating that the adaptive evolution of TRIM5alpha in primates might be an innate strategy developed in defending retrovirus infection during primate evolution. In addition, the comparative protein sequence analysis suggested that the amino acid substitution pattern at a single site (344R/Q/P) located in the SPRY domain may explain the differences in susceptibilities of HIV-1 infection in diverse primate species.
authors.affiliation: Kunming Primate Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Liang
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yin-Qiu
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Cheng-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Yi-Qun
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Yong-Tang
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Su
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D003062:Codon; D019295:Computational Biology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000235:genetics*; D015497:HIV-1; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D011506:Proteins; C482587:TRIM5(alpha) protein, rhesus monkey; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases