Poster abstracts
Poster number 29 submitted by Jonathan Kitzrow
Investigating the Conformational Changes in the HIV-1 5'UTR and Their Impact on gRNA Selective Packaging
Jonathan Kitzrow (The Ohio State University ), Erik Olson (The Ohio State University ), Karin Musier-Forsyth (The Ohio State University)
Abstract:
HIV-1 packages its genetic material into budding virions as a dimer of full length-genomic RNA (gRNA). HIV-1 gRNA packaging is facilitated through interactions between the NC domain of the HIV-1 Gag protein and specific structural elements in the 5’-untranslated region (5’UTR) of gRNA. HIV-1 gRNA also serves as the template for Gag/Gag-Pol translation, essential structural and enzymatic polyproteins of the HIV-1 virion. A conformational change in the 5’UTR has previously been proposed to govern a switch from translation competent or packaging competent gRNA. NMR studies have shown that the U5 region of the 5’UTR can interact with both the dimer initiation signal (DIS) and Gag start codon (AUG), located in the 5’UTR. These interactions selectively expose either the DIS (packaging competent form) or AUG (translation competent form) elements in a mutually exclusive manner. Gag, Gag-NC, and tRNALys3 may all effect this conformational equilibria. To test these interactions we have designed a FRET based assay to probe the HIV-1 5’UTR conformational state in dimeric and monomeric conditions.
Keywords: HIV-1 gRNA, FRET