Uneven genetic robustness of HIV-1 integrase.

ABSTRACT:

Unlabelled

Genetic robustness (tolerance of mutation) may be a naturally selected property in some viruses, because it should enhance adaptability. Robustness should be especially beneficial to viruses like HIV-1 that exhibit high mutation rates and exist in immunologically hostile environments. Surprisingly, however, the HIV-1 capsid protein (CA) exhibits extreme fragility. To determine whether fragility is a general property of HIV-1 proteins, we created a large library of random, single-amino-acid mutants in HIV-1 integrase (IN), covering >40% of amino acid positions. Despite similar degrees of sequence variation in naturally occurring IN and CA sequences, we found that HIV-1 IN was significantly more robust than CA, with random nonsilent IN mutations only half as likely to caus

SUBMITTER: Rihn SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4301135 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature