Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2750
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Item Nucleocapsid protein modulates the specificity of plus strand priming and recombination patterns in Human Immunodeficiency Virus(2008-11-30) Jacob, Deena Thankam; DeStefano, Jeffrey J; Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Replication in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) occurs through reverse transcription in which the genomic single stranded RNA is copied into double stranded DNA. This process involves two priming events namely those of the minus and plus strand DNAs. The tRNA primer required to initiate the minus strand is carried by the virus into the host cell, while the plus strand primer is generated from a region of the genomic RNA called the polypurine tract (PPT). Results in this dissertation indicate a new role for HIV nucleocapsid protein (NC) in modulating the specificity of plus strand priming. For HIV, the central and 3′ (PPTs) are the major sites of plus strand initiation and other primers are rarely used. Using reconstituted in vitro assays, results showed that NC greatly reduced the efficiency of extension of non-PPT RNA primers, but not PPT. Extension assays in presence of mutant NCs show that the helix destabilization activity of NC and its ability to block the association of RT to non-PPT primers are responsible for the preferential extension of PPT in presence of NC. The effect of varying NC and Mg2+ concentrations on recombination during reverse transcription was also analyzed in this thesis. NC strongly influences the efficiency of recombination as well as the location where crossovers occurred. In contrast Mg2+ had a smaller effect on crossover locations. Both NC and Mg2+ influenced the level of pausing by RT during synthesis on RNA templates although NC's effect was more profound. At high NC concentrations, pausing was nearly eliminated even in locations with high predicted secondary structure. The results suggest that RT pausing may be limited during virus replication.Item In Vitro Synthesis of Long Reverse Transcription Products from Genomic RNA of Human Immunodeficiency Virus(2006-04-25) Anthony, Reshma Merin; DeStefano, Jeffrey J; Molecular and Cell Biology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The retroviral reverse transcription reaction normally occurs in capsid-like structures in the cytoplasm of infected cells. Reverse transcription can also be carried out in vitro in totally reconstituted reactions with purified enzymes and model RNA templates. However, in this case fully synthesized DNAs are rarely generated from genomic RNA. This could be because the capsid creates an extremely concentrated and specific environment that cannot be completely reproduced in vitro. An in vitro system that closely mimics replication and that can be easily manipulated would enhance our understanding of the replication process. In this thesis report, in vitro reaction conditions that allowed efficient synthesis of DNA products up to 4 kb from genomic RNA segments of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) were generated. The reactions required high amounts of HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme (RT) and nucleocapsid protein (NC) sufficient to completely coat the RNA template in the reaction. Synthesis of long DNA products required the formation of high molecular weight aggregates with nucleic acids, RT and NC. Removal of the dimerization region did not affect synthesis of long DNA products in vitro. Processivity of RT does not play a role in the synthesis of long DNA products. NC finger mutants lacking either finger or with the finger positions switched were all effective in synthesizing long DNA products suggesting that the aggregation/condensation activity but not the unwinding activity of NC is required for the synthesis of long DNAs in vitro. These results taken together, we propose that high molecular weight aggregates promote synthesis of long reverse transcription products in vitro by concentrating nucleic acids, RT enzyme and NC into a smaller area, thereby mimicking the role of the capsid environment within the host cell. In addition, strand transfer assays indicate that strand transfer is the molecular mechanism involved in the synthesis of long DNAs and the rate of transfer (cross-over events per nucleotide synthesized) is higher than that found in tissue culture-based recombination assays. An in vitro system that closely mimics what occurs in the cell could be used to screen inhibitors on RT, NC and recombination.Item Human Immunodeficiency Virus Nucleocapsid Protein: Analysis of the mechanism of strand exchange and the role of the zinc fingers in nucleic acid chaperone activity.(2004-06-15) Heath, Megan Joy; DeStefano, Jeffrey J; Molecular and Cell Biology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The human immunodeficiency virus genome is coated by the nucleocapsid protein (NC). NC is a 55 amino acid highly basic protein. It has two zinc fingers that differ by five amino acids. NC contains nucleic acid chaperone activity that aids in the formation of highly stable nucleic acid structures by destabilizing and preventing the formation of weaker structures. This activity is important for genome dimerization and maturation, tRNA:primer binding site annealing, and many steps in reverse transcription. Annealing experiments were performed with four different RNA structures and complementary DNAs. NC enhanced annealing of all structures showing that NC enhances both unwinding of nucleic acid structure and hybridization of unstructured sequences. NC mutant proteins were used in annealing assays. 1.1 NC had two copies of the first zinc finger, 2.2 NC had two copies of the second zinc finger, and 2.1 NC had both zinc fingers with their positions switched. Experiments showed that all mutants could enhance the annealing of weakly structured nucleic acids but only 1.1 NC and 2.1 NC enhanced annealing of strongly structured nucleic acids. Results suggest that finger one is important for nucleic acid unwinding while finger two plays an accessory role in annealing. The mechanism of strand exchange, another important aspect of NC chaperone activity, was also investigated. Experiments were performed using RNA:DNA hybrids with either the DNA or RNA radioactively labeled. Hybrids were incubated with different types of RNA acceptor molecules to which the DNA could transfer. The transfer of the DNA or the displacement of the original donor RNA was monitored. Experiments showed that optimal enhancement of strand exchange by NC occurred with acceptors that had more than 22 nucleotides that could anneal to the single stranded region of the DNA. Also, experiments with acceptors that had point mutations showed that the region of the acceptor that binds to the single stranded region of the DNA should be completely complementary for optimal NC stimulation. These results indicate the annealing of the acceptor and DNA outside the donor:DNA hybrid region can be an important initiation step for NC enhanced strand exchange.