Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2004 Apr;2(2):163-75.
doi: 10.2174/1570162043484988.

The selective packaging and annealing of primer tRNALys3 in HIV-1

Lawrence Kleiman  1 , Rabih Halwani, Hassan Javanbakht
Affiliations
Review

The selective packaging and annealing of primer tRNALys3 in HIV-1

Lawrence Kleiman et al. Curr HIV Res. 2004 Apr.

Abstract

In HIV-1, tRNA(Lys3) serves as the primer for reverse transcriptase, and during viral assembly, the tRNA(Lys) isoacceptors, tRNA(Lys1,2) and tRNA(Lys3), are selectively packaged into the virion. In this review, we shall first discuss the evidence for the formation of a tRNA(Lys) packaging complex, whose components include Gag, GagPol, genomic RNA, lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LysRS), and tRNA(Lys). Evidence suggests that the formation of this complex involves a Gag/GagPol/viral genomic RNA complex interacting with a tRNA(Lys)/ LysRS complex, with Gag interacting with both GagPol and LysRS, and GagPol interacting with the tRNA(Lys). The interaction of Gag with LysRS is quite specific, does not require the presence of tRNA(Lys), and LysRS is believed to be the target that allows the specific packaging of tRNA(Lys) into the virion. The parameters influencing these interactions, and the molecular sites of interaction, will be discussed. The selective packaging of tRNA(Lys3) into HIV-1 facilitates annealing of tRNA(Lys) to the 5' region of viral RNA genome. This region contains a series of stem loops, and there exists several regions in both the viral RNA and the tRNA(Lys) that are believed to be important for tRNA(Lys) annealing. The annealing is facilitated by viral proteins such as unprocessed Gag, nucleocapsid, and reverse transcriptase.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles