title: Retroviral nucleocapsid proteins display nonequivalent levels of nucleic acid chaperone activity.
abstract: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nucleocapsid protein (NC) is a nucleic acid chaperone that facilitates the remodeling of nucleic acids during various steps of the viral life cycle. Two main features of NC's chaperone activity are its abilities to aggregate and to destabilize nucleic acids. These functions are associated with NC's highly basic character and with its zinc finger domains, respectively. While the chaperone activity of HIV-1 NC has been extensively studied, less is known about the chaperone activities of other retroviral NCs. In this work, complementary experimental approaches were used to characterize and compare the chaperone activities of NC proteins from four different retroviruses: HIV-1, Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV), Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1). The different NCs exhibited significant differences in their overall chaperone activities, as demonstrated by gel shift annealing assays, decreasing in the order HIV-1 approximately RSV > MLV >> HTLV-1. In addition, whereas HIV-1, RSV, and MLV NCs are effective aggregating agents, HTLV-1 NC, which exhibits poor overall chaperone activity, is unable to aggregate nucleic acids. Measurements of equilibrium binding to single- and double-stranded oligonucleotides suggested that all four NC proteins have moderate duplex destabilization capabilities. Single-molecule DNA-stretching studies revealed striking differences in the kinetics of nucleic acid dissociation between the NC proteins, showing excellent correlation between nucleic acid dissociation kinetics and overall chaperone activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 W 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Kristen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Stewart-Maynard
authors.forename: Margareta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cruceanu
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: My-Nuong
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Vo
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gorelick
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Ioulia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rouzina
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Musier-Forsyth
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral