Figure 5.

Stereo view of critical residues of the HIV-1 RT. The polypeptide backbone of the fingers and palm subdomains of the 66-kDa subunit of the HIV-1 RT from the 1rtj crystal structure (15) is shown. The polypeptide backbone of the region we mutagenized (residues P95 through E203) is colored in yellow. Side chains for critical residues are colored as follows: catalytic (D110, D185, and D186) in purple, functional in cyan, stability (from a conservative interpretation of the mutational data) in red, and external in green. This figure was generated by using the program ribbons (13).