Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1987 Oct;6(10):3133–3137. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02623.x

AIDS virus reverse transcriptase defined by high level expression in Escherichia coli.

B Larder 1, D Purifoy 1, K Powell 1, G Darby 1
PMCID: PMC553754  PMID: 2446866

Abstract

The causative agent of AIDS the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) encodes as part of its pol gene a reverse transcriptase (RT) which has a key role in the replication of the virus and thus constitutes an ideal target for antiviral chemotherapy. The purified HIV RT from virus particles consists of two related polypeptides of 66 and 51 kd mol. wt and similar polypeptides are found on expression of the complete HIV pol gene using prokaryotic systems. Here we describe the expression of the 66-kd protein in Escherichia coli and demonstrate that this polypeptide alone has authentic RT activity. Thus, a central HIV pol gene segment encodes and is sufficient for high levels of RT activity. The RT has been purified from E. coli extracts using a purification procedure involving two chromotography steps resulting in an enzyme preparation near homogeneity. Deletion of the C-terminal region of the RT thought to encode the RNase H domain resulted in loss of polymerase activity.

Full text

PDF
3133

Images in this article

3135Fig. 2.
on p.3135
3135Fig. 4.
on p.3135

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Banks L. M., Halliburton I. W., Purifoy D. J., Killington R. A., Powell K. L. Studies on the herpes simplex virus alkaline nuclease: detection of type-common and type-specific epitopes on the enzyme. J Gen Virol. 1985 Jan;66(Pt 1):1–14. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-66-1-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Farmerie W. G., Loeb D. D., Casavant N. C., Hutchison C. A., 3rd, Edgell M. H., Swanstrom R. Expression and processing of the AIDS virus reverse transcriptase in Escherichia coli. Science. 1987 Apr 17;236(4799):305–308. doi: 10.1126/science.2436298. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Furman P. A., Fyfe J. A., St Clair M. H., Weinhold K., Rideout J. L., Freeman G. A., Lehrman S. N., Bolognesi D. P., Broder S., Mitsuya H. Phosphorylation of 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine and selective interaction of the 5'-triphosphate with human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Nov;83(21):8333–8337. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.21.8333. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Johnson M. S., McClure M. A., Feng D. F., Gray J., Doolittle R. F. Computer analysis of retroviral pol genes: assignment of enzymatic functions to specific sequences and homologies with nonviral enzymes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Oct;83(20):7648–7652. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.20.7648. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lightfoote M. M., Coligan J. E., Folks T. M., Fauci A. S., Martin M. A., Venkatesan S. Structural characterization of reverse transcriptase and endonuclease polypeptides of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome retrovirus. J Virol. 1986 Nov;60(2):771–775. doi: 10.1128/jvi.60.2.771-775.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Mitsuya H., Broder S. Strategies for antiviral therapy in AIDS. 1987 Feb 26-Mar 4Nature. 325(6107):773–778. doi: 10.1038/325773a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Muesing M. A., Smith D. H., Cabradilla C. D., Benton C. V., Lasky L. A., Capon D. J. Nucleic acid structure and expression of the human AIDS/lymphadenopathy retrovirus. Nature. 1985 Feb 7;313(6002):450–458. doi: 10.1038/313450a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Norrander J., Kempe T., Messing J. Construction of improved M13 vectors using oligodeoxynucleotide-directed mutagenesis. Gene. 1983 Dec;26(1):101–106. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(83)90040-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Osinga K. A., Van der Bliek A. M., Van der Horst G., Groot Koerkamp M. J., Tabak H. F., Veeneman G. H., Van Boom J. H. In vitro site-directed mutagenesis with synthetic DNA oligonucleotides yields unexpected deletions and insertions at high frequency. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Dec 20;11(24):8595–8608. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.24.8595. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Purifoy D. J., Powell K. L. DNA-binding proteins induced by herpes simplex virus type 2 in HEp-2 cells. J Virol. 1976 Aug;19(2):717–731. doi: 10.1128/jvi.19.2.717-731.1976. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ratner L., Haseltine W., Patarca R., Livak K. J., Starcich B., Josephs S. F., Doran E. R., Rafalski J. A., Whitehorn E. A., Baumeister K. Complete nucleotide sequence of the AIDS virus, HTLV-III. Nature. 1985 Jan 24;313(6000):277–284. doi: 10.1038/313277a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sanchez-Pescador R., Power M. D., Barr P. J., Steimer K. S., Stempien M. M., Brown-Shimer S. L., Gee W. W., Renard A., Randolph A., Levy J. A. Nucleotide sequence and expression of an AIDS-associated retrovirus (ARV-2). Science. 1985 Feb 1;227(4686):484–492. doi: 10.1126/science.2578227. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tanese N., Sodroski J., Haseltine W. A., Goff S. P. Expression of reverse transcriptase activity of human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III/LAV) in Escherichia coli. J Virol. 1986 Sep;59(3):743–745. doi: 10.1128/jvi.59.3.743-745.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Veronese F. D., DeVico A. L., Copeland T. D., Oroszlan S., Gallo R. C., Sarngadharan M. G. Characterization of gp41 as the transmembrane protein coded by the HTLV-III/LAV envelope gene. Science. 1985 Sep 27;229(4720):1402–1405. doi: 10.1126/science.2994223. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Vrang L., Oberg B. PPi analogs as inhibitors of human T-lymphotropic virus type III reverse transcriptase. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1986 May;29(5):867–872. doi: 10.1128/aac.29.5.867. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wain-Hobson S., Sonigo P., Danos O., Cole S., Alizon M. Nucleotide sequence of the AIDS virus, LAV. Cell. 1985 Jan;40(1):9–17. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90303-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Zoller M. J., Smith M. Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis using M13-derived vectors: an efficient and general procedure for the production of point mutations in any fragment of DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Oct 25;10(20):6487–6500. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.20.6487. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. de Boer H. A., Comstock L. J., Vasser M. The tac promoter: a functional hybrid derived from the trp and lac promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jan;80(1):21–25. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.1.21. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES