Science, Vol 241, Issue 4872, 1492-1495
Copyright © 1988 by American Association for the Advancement of Science
Virus-specific splicing inhibitor in extracts from cells infected with HIV-1
D Gutman
and
CJ Goldenberg
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami School of Medicine, FL 33101.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), in contrast with most other retroviruses, encodes trans-regulatory proteins for virus gene expression. It is shown in this study, by means of an in vitro splicing system, that nuclear extracts obtained from cells infected with HIV-1 contain a factor (or factors) that specifically inhibits splicing of a synthetic SP6/HIV pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA)-containing donor and acceptor splice sites in the coding region for the envelope protein. It is also shown that the SP6/HIV pre-mRNA is not capable of assembly in a ribonucleoprotein complex, spliceosome, in extracts from infected cells. These findings raise the possibility that specific inhibition of pre-mRNA splicing in the envelope protein coding region by HIV-1 trans-regulatory factors might be one control mechanism for efficient production of structural viral proteins and virion assembly.
