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. 1995 Jul 25;23(14):2573–2578. doi: 10.1093/nar/23.14.2573

Reverse transcriptase and substrate dependence of the RNA hypermutagenesis reaction.

M A Martínez 1, M Sala 1, J P Vartanian 1, S Wain-Hobson 1
PMCID: PMC307076  PMID: 7544458

Abstract

G-->A hypermutation is a remarkable phenomenon resulting from retroviral reverse transcription in the presence of highly biased dNTP concentrations. Of the three reverse transcriptases (RTases) available, those of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) and Moloney murine leukemia virus (MoMLV), the HIV-1 enzyme showed the greatest sensitivity to biased [dCTP]/[dTTP] ratios. The HIV-1 RTase was able to discriminate between dUTP, dITP and the four DNA precursors and was insensitive to pH. There was little preference for nucleotide contexts. A few exceptionally modified sequences were found presumably resulting from G-->A hypermutation and multiple strand transfer. This particular predilection of the HIV-1 and, by extrapolation, the lentiviral RTases towards G-->A hypermutation suggests that the phenomenon may have contributed to the remarkably elevated A content of these retroviral genomes.

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Selected References

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