Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
J. Virol., Dec 1996, 8348-8354, Vol 70, No. 12
JC Paillart, L Berthoux, M Ottmann, JL Darlix, R Marquet, B Ehresmann and C Ehresmann
In retroviruses, the genomic RNA is in the form of a 60S-70S complex
composed of two identical genome-length RNA molecules tightly associated
through numerous interactions. A major interaction, called the dimer
linkage structure, has been found near the RNA 5' end and is probably
involved in the control of translation, packaging, and recombination during
proviral DNA synthesis. Recently, a small sequence corresponding to a
stem-loop structure located in the 5' leader of human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA was found to be required for the initiation of
HIV-1 RNA dimerization in vitro and named the dimerization initiation site
(E. Skripkin, J.-C. Paillart, R. Marquet, B. Ehresmann, and C. Ehresmann,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 4945-4949, 1994). To investigate the
possible role of this 5' stem-loop in HIV-1 virion formation and
infectivity, four mutant viruses were generated and analyzed in vivo.
Results show that deletion of the stem- loop structure reduces infectivity
by a factor of 10(3) whereas loop substitutions cause a decrease of 10- to
100-fold. The level of genomic RNA packaging was found to be decreased
fivefold in mutants virions containing the stem-loop deletion and only
twofold in the loop- substituted virions. Surprisingly, the second DNA
strand transfer during reverse transcription was found to be severely
impaired upon stem-loop deletion. Taken together, these results indicate
that the stem-loop structure called the dimerization initiation site is a
cis element acting on both genomic RNA packaging and synthesis of proviral
DNA.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
A dual role of the putative RNA dimerization initiation site of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in genomic RNA packaging and proviral DNA synthesis
Unite Propre de Recherche du CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg, France.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»