Two proteins with reverse transcriptase activities associated with hepatitis B virus-like particles
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
Recent studies suggest that hepatitis B virus (HBV), despite being a DNA virus, replicates via an RNA intermediate. The HBV life cycle is therefore a permuted version of the RNA retroviral life cycle. Sequence homology between retroviral reverse transcriptase and the putative HBV polymerase gene product suggests the presence of an HBV reverse transcriptase. As yet, there has been no direct evidence that reverse transcriptase activity is present in the viral particle. The authors used activity gel analysis to detect the in situ catalytic activities of DNA polymerases after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophorsis. These studies demonstrated that HBV-like particles secreted by a differentiated human hepatoma cell line tranfected with genomic HBV DNA contain two major polymerase activities which migrate as {approximately}90- and {approximately}70-kilodalton (kDa) proteins. This demonstrated, for the first time, that HBV-like particles contain a novel DNA polymerase-reverse transcriptase activity. Furthermore, they propose that the 70-kDa reverse transcriptase may be produced by proteolytic self-cleavage of the 90-kDa precursor protein.
- OSTI ID:
- 6617570
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Virology; (USA), Vol. 62:2; ISSN 0022-538X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
DNA POLYMERASES
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
TUMOR CELLS
ENZYME ACTIVITY
BIOCHEMISTRY
DNA SEQUENCING
HEPATITIS
HEPATOMAS
LIVER CELLS
PHOSPHORUS 32
ANIMAL CELLS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMISTRY
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM DISEASES
DISEASES
ENZYMES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NEOPLASMS
NUCLEI
NUCLEOTIDYLTRANSFERASES
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PHOSPHORUS ISOTOPES
PHOSPHORUS-GROUP TRANSFERASES
POLYMERASES
RADIOISOTOPES
SOMATIC CELLS
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
TRANSFERASES
550701* - Microbiology- Tracer Techniques