Specific implications of the HIV-1 nucleocapsid zinc fingers in the annealing of the primer binding site complementary sequences during the obligatory plus strand transfer.

ABSTRACT: Synthesis of the HIV-1 viral DNA by reverse transcriptase involves two obligatory strand transfer reactions. The second strand transfer corresponds to the annealing of the (-) and (+) DNA copies of the primer binding site (PBS) sequence which is chaperoned by the nucleocapsid protein (NCp7). NCp7 modifies the (+)/(-)PBS annealing mechanism by activating a loop-loop kissing pathway that is negligible without NCp7. To characterize in depth the dynamics of the loop in the NCp7/PBS nucleoprotein complexes, we investigated the time-resolved fluorescence parameters of a (-)PBS derivative containing the fluorescent nucleoside analogue 2-aminopurine at positions 6, 8 or 10. The NCp7-directed switch of (+)/(-)PBS annealing towards the loop pathway was associated to a drastic restriction of the loca

SUBMITTER: Godet J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3159456 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature