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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 30.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Immunol. 2012 Oct 10;24(6):692–697. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2012.09.007

Figure 1.

Figure 1

AGS genes cooperate to metabolize reverse transcription products of endogenous retroelements. A schematic of the retroviral reverse transcription process is shown. SAMHD1, an AGS gene and HIV-1 restriction factor, prevents the initiation of reverse transcription by controlling dNTP availability to RT enzymes. A speculative role for RNaseH2 in degrading the RNA strand of RNA/DNA hybrids is depicted. Trex1 can block retrotransposition by metabolizing the reverse-transcribed DNA of retroelements. Failure to metabolize these viral nucleic acids may trigger the ISD pathway through accumulation of RNA/DNA hybrids or reverse-transcribed DNA.