FIG 8.
Measured stiffness values of isolated E45A and E478Q HIV-1 cores as a function of the progress of reverse transcription. Cores were adhered to HMDS-coated glass slides and kept in MOPS buffer. Transcription was initiated by adding dNTPs and MgCl2 to the cores, and their stiffness was measured by AFM. The initial average stiffness value of cores prior to reverse transcription is represented as time zero. WT data (taken from Fig. 1) is presented as a gray line for comparison. The error bars represent the standard error of the mean, and the number of cores analyzed is indicated beside each data point.