Expression of HIV from a 1-LTR circular DNA in the absence of integration.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Like all retroviruses, two kinds of viral DNA are present in the nucleus of HIV-infected cells: integrated DNA and a pool of unintegrated DNA containing linear and circular forms. For the most part, it has been difficult to examine the role of the unintegrated DNA forms in the viral life cycle in the presence of the integrated form, or to distinguish the respective contributions of the two circular DNA forms in the context of the unintegrated DNA.

Results

In our approach, we constructed a 1-LTR circular form of HIV in order to study its expression in isolation from the other forms; we derived a linear genomic HIV DNA lacking the 5'-LTR (1-LTR_HIV) from a molecular clone of HIV. This linear form is transcriptionally incompetent, but via circularization be

SUBMITTER: Gurgo C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11912779 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature