hiv-1 tat its dependence on host factors is crystal clearhiv - 1乙的依赖宿主因素是晶莹剔透.pdfVIP

Viruses 2010, 2, 2226-2234; doi:10.3390/v2102226 OPEN ACCESS viruses ISSN 1999-4915 /journal/viruses Commentary HIV-1 Tat: Its Dependence on Host Factors is Crystal Clear Iván D’Orso and Alan D. Frankel * Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, 600 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94158-2280, USA; E-Mail: ivan.dorso@ * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: frankel@; Tel.: +1-415-476-9994; Fax: +1-415-514-4112. Received: 2 September 2010; in revised form: 1 October 2010 / Accepted: 1 October 2010 / Published: 6 October 2010 Abstract: HIV-1 transcription is regulated at the level of elongation by the viral Tat protein together with the cellular elongation factor P-TEFb, which is composed of cyclin T1 and Cdk9 subunits. The crystal structure of a Tat:P-TEFb complex (Tahirov, T.H.; Babayeva, N.D.; Varzavand, K.; Cooper, J.J.; Sedore, S.C.; and Price, D.H. Crystal structure of HIV-1 Tat complexed with human P-TEFb. Nature 2010, 465, 747-751.) reveals molecular details of Tat and its interactions that have eluded investigators for more than two decades and provides provocative insights into the mechanism of Tat activation. Keywords: HIV-1; Tat; transcription; P-TEFb; retroviruses HIV-1, like many viruses, co-opts the cellular machinery to orchestrate its life cycle, including its transcriptional program, and the recent crystal structure of a viral-host protein complex has revealed new fac