Protein-protein interactions of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: implication of central and C-terminal regions in subunit binding.

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 reverse transcriptase (RT) purified from virions is composed of a approximately 51,000 Mr polypeptide and a approximately 66,000 Mr polypeptide that are thought to be in heterodimer structure (Chandra et al., 1986; Hansen et al., 1988; Starnes & Cheng, 1989) and are identical except for a 15,000 Mr C-terminal truncation in the smaller species (Di Marzo-Veronese et al., 1986). We prepared individual bacterial-recombinant RTs as the approximately 66,000 Mr polypeptide (p66) or as the approximately 51,000 Mr polypeptide (p51) and then conducted various in vitro protein-protein binding experiments. Analytical ultracentrifugation studies in 0.25 M NaCl at pH 6.5 revealed that p66 was in monomer-dimer equilibrium with KA of 5.1 x 10(4) M-1. p51 failed to dimerize and behaved as a monomer under these conditions. Mixing of the p66 and p51 polypeptides resulted in a 1:1 heterodimer with KA of 4.9 x 10(5) M-1. These results on formation of the p66/p66 homodimer and p66/p51 heterodimer were confirmed by gel filtration analysis using FPLC Superose-12 columns. Binding between p66 and individual p66 segment polypeptides also was observed using an immunoprecipitation assay. Binding between p51 and p66 in this assay was resistant to the presence of approximately 1 M NaCl, suggesting that the binding free energy has a large hydrophobic component. C-Terminal truncation of p66 to yield a 29-kDa polypeptide eliminated binding to p66, and N-terminal truncation of p66 to yield a 15-kDa peptide also eliminated binding to p66. The results indicate that purified individual RT peptides p51 and p66 are capable of binding to form a 1:1 heterodimer and suggest that the central region of p66 is required for this subunit binding; the C-terminal region (15,000 Mr) of p66 appears to be required also, as p51 alone did not dimerize.

Identification and properties of the catalytic domain of mammalian DNA polymerase beta.

Rat DNA polymerase beta (beta-pol) is a 39-kDa protein organized in two tightly folded domains, 8-kDa N-terminal and 31-kDa C-terminal domains, connected by a short protease-sensitive region. The 8-kDa domain contributes template binding to the intact protein, and we now report that the 31-kDa C-terminal domain contributes catalytic activity. Our results show that this domain as a purified proteolytic fragment conducts DNA synthesis under appropriate conditions but the kcat is lower and primer extension properties are different from those of the intact enzyme. A proteolytic truncation of the 31-kDa catalytic domain fragment, to remove a 60-residue segment from the NH2-terminal end, results in nearly complete loss of activity, suggesting the importance of this segment. Overall, these results indicate that the domains of beta-pol have distinct functional roles, template binding and nucleotidyltransferase, respectively; yet, the intact protein is more active for each function than the isolated individual domain fragment.

Genetic rearrangements of plasmids containing mtDNA inserts: possible poison sequence.

Restriction mapping of recombinant plasmids indicated the presence of poison sequence(s) in monkey mtDNA. These plasmids were constructed from a 5.2 K.b. BglII mtDNA fragment and pRSVneo or pdel9 as cloning vectors. The poison sequence(s) caused genetic rearrangement of the vectors' nucleotide sequences. Deletion of the suspected poison sequence(s) from the mtDNA fragment increased the transformation efficiency of the produced recombinant plasmids and conserved the vectors' original nucleotide sequences.

Monkey (CV-1) mitochondrial DNA contains a unique triplication of 108 bp in the origin region.

A fragment of monkey kidney cells (CV-1) mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) containing the origin of replication has been cloned and sequenced. The nucleotide sequence, 640 bp, extends from the coding sequence of phenylalanyl tRNA to the flanking sequence upstream of the origin region. A unique triplication of 108 bp, including the evolutionary conserved sequence CSB-3, was found. Comparison between the origin regions of monkey, human and mouse mtDNA is presented.

Studies on catalytic subunits of mouse myeloma alpha-polymerase.

Activity gel analysis has been used to identify mouse myeloma polypeptides with DNA polymerase activity. Proteins in a crude homogenate of mouse myeloma were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was soaked from the gel, and polypeptides were allowed to renature in situ; then the intact gel was incubated in a DNA polymerase reaction mixture in order to localize DNA polymerases (Spanos, A., Sedgwick, S. G., Yarranton, G. T., Hübscher, U., and Banks, G. R. (1981) Nucleic Acids Res. 9, 1825-1839). This activity gel analysis revealed that the homogenate contains a Mr = 40,000 polypeptide with strong DNA polymerase activity; from its Mr and catalytic properties this enzyme was identified as beta-polymerase. The homogenate also contains two additional DNA polymerase activities giving relatively strong bands at Mr = approximately 76,000 and approximately 120,000, respectively. Results on the catalytic properties of both of these enzymes suggest that they are alpha-polymerases. Further evidence for the existence of a Mr approximately 120,000 alpha-polymerase catalytic polypeptide came from the observation that a purified preparation of one of the recognized species of mouse myeloma alpha-polymerase is composed of a Mr = approximately 120,000 polypeptide, as revealed by Coomassie blue staining after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of 3 M urea. This purified enzyme does not contain polypeptides in the Mr = 40,000 to 70,000 range, and is capable of producing a strong band at Mr = 120,000 in the activity gel assay.