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Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 8785-8792, Vol. 74, No. 19
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Nucleocapsid
Protein Can Prevent Self-Priming of Minus-Strand Strong Stop DNA by
Promoting the Annealing of Short Oligonucleotides to Hairpin
Sequences
Mark D.
Driscoll
and
Stephen H.
Hughes*
ABL-Basic Research Program, NCI-Frederick
Cancer Research and Development Center, Frederick, Maryland
21702-1201
Received 12 April 2000/Accepted 18 June 2000
Understanding how viral components collaborate to convert the human
immunodeficiency virus type 1 genome from single-stranded RNA into
double-stranded DNA is critical to the understanding of viral
replication. Not only must the correct reactions be carried out, but
unwanted side reactions must be avoided. After minus-strand strong stop
DNA (
sssDNA) synthesis, degradation of the RNA template by the RNase
H domain of reverse transcriptase (RT) produces single-stranded DNA
that has the potential to self-prime at the imperfectly base-paired TAR
hairpin, making continued DNA synthesis impossible. Although nucleocapsid protein (NC) interferes with
sssDNA self-priming in
reverse transcription reactions in vitro, NC alone did not prevent
self-priming of a synthetic
sssDNA oligomer. NC did not influence DNA
bending and therefore cannot inhibit self-priming at hairpins by
directly blocking hairpin formation. Using DNA oligomers as a model for
genomic RNA fragments, we found that a 17-base DNA fragment annealed to
the 3' end of the
sssDNA prevented self-priming in the presence of
NC. This implies that to avoid self-priming, an RNA-DNA hybrid that is
more thermodynamically stable than the hairpin must remain within the
hairpin region. This suggests that NC prevents self-priming by
generating or stabilizing a thermodynamically favored RNA-DNA
heteroduplex instead of the kinetically favored TAR hairpin. In support
of this idea, sequence changes that increased base pairing in the DNA
TAR hairpin resulted in an increase in self-priming in vitro. We
present a model describing the role of NC-dependent inhibition of
self-priming in first-strand transfer.
*
Corresponding author. Present address: HIV Drug
Resistance Program, NCI-Frederick Cancer Research and Development
Center, P.O. Box B, Frederick, MD 21702-1201. Phone: (301) 846-1619. Fax: (301) 846-6966. E-mail: hughes{at}ncifcrf.gov.

Present address: HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer
Institute-FCRDC, Frederick, MD 21702-1201.
Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 8785-8792, Vol. 74, No. 19
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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