Specific recognition and cleavage of the plus-strand primer by reverse transcriptase.

ABSTRACT: Reverse transcriptases (RTs) of retroviruses and long terminal repeat (LTR)-retrotransposons possess DNA polymerase and RNase H activities. During reverse transcription these activities are necessary for the programmed sequence of events that include template switching and primer processing. Integrase then inserts the completed cDNA into the genome of the host cell. The RT of the LTR-retrotransposon Tf1 was subjected to random mutagenesis, and the resulting transposons were screened with genetic assays to test which mutations reduced reverse transcription and which inhibited integration. We identified a cluster of mutations in the RNase H domain of RT that were surprising because they blocked integration without reducing cDNA levels. The results of immunoblots demonstrated that these mutat

SUBMITTER: Atwood-Moore A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1287563 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature