FIGURE 1.
Sequences of the Tat variants and Tat peptides. TatHXB2 is used as the primary reference genome for HIV-1 at the Los Alamos HIV Databases. HIV-1HXB2 is a specific clone from the French isolate HIV-1LAI (formerly HIV-1BRU), which is also referred to as HIV-1IIIB or LAV. It was one of the first published nucleotide sequences of HIV-1. The clade C Tat93In was derived from HIV-193In905 isolated in India. Tat93In is typical of clade C isolated in that it possesses a C31S substitution in the cysteine-rich region (28). Tat96Bw, also a clade C protein, was derived from the Botswanian isolate HIV-196Bw0504 and possesses an intact 30C-C motif (29, 31). Tat1–45 and Tat1–45C31S are truncated peptides of TatHXB2 that differ only in a C31S mutation.