Insights into the mechanisms of RNA secondary structure destabilization by the HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein

RNA
Anissa BelfetmiOlivier Mauffret

Abstract

The mature HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein NCp7 (NC) plays a key role in reverse transcription facilitating the two obligatory strand transfers. Several properties contribute to its efficient chaperon activity: preferential binding to single-stranded regions, nucleic acid aggregation, helix destabilization, and rapid dissociation from nucleic acids. However, little is known about the relationships between these different properties, which are complicated by the ability of the protein to recognize particular HIV-1 stem-loops, such as SL1, SL2, and SL3, with high affinity and without destabilizing them. These latter properties are important in the context of genome packaging, during which NC is part of the Gag precursor. We used NMR to investigate destabilization of the full-length TAR (trans activating response element) RNA by NC, which is involved in the first strand transfer step of reverse transcription. NC was used at a low protein:nucleotide (nt) ratio of 1:59 in these experiments. NMR data for the imino protons of TAR identified most of the base pairs destabilized by NC. These base pairs were adjacent to the loops in the upper part of the TAR hairpin rather than randomly distributed. Gel retardation assays showed that conversio...Continue Reading

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Citations

Sep 15, 2016·Viruses·Elodie MaillerRedmond P Smyth
Oct 4, 2020·Viruses·Patricia S BoydSaif Yasin
Apr 4, 2021·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Alice SosicBarbara Gatto
Oct 8, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jack P K BravoAlexander Borodavka

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