Trans-Activator Gene of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III (HTLV-III)

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 229; no. 4708; pp. 69 - 73
• Main Authors: Arya, Suresh K., Guo, Chan, Josephs, Steven F., Wong-Staal, Flossie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC The American Association for the Advancement of Science 05.07.1985; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: AIDS (Disease); AIDS research; AIDS/HIV; Amino Acid Sequence; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Chromosome Mapping; Complementary DNA; Deltaretrovirus - genetics; Exons; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Genes, Regulator; Genes, Viral; Genetics; HIV; HTLV viruses; Human T lymphotropic virus 1; Human T lymphotropic virus 2; Humans; Messenger RNA; Microbiology; Open reading frames; Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; Retroviruses; RNA; RNA Splicing; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Viral - genetics; Transcription Factors - genetics; Viral Proteins - genetics; Virology; Viruses; Human origin; Genome organization; Transcription; Gene product; Activator gene; Retroviridae; Gene organization; Activation; Gene expression; Biological activity; Virus; Proteins; Messenger RNA; Complementary DNA; Localization; Physical map
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.2990040

Human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) encodes a trans-acting factor that activates the expression of genes linked to the HTLV-III long terminal repeat. By functional mapping of complementary DNA transcripts of viral messenger RNA's the major functional domain of the gene encoding this factor was localized to a region immediately before the env gene of the virus, a region previously thought to be noncoding. This newly identified gene consists of three exons, and its transcription into messenger RNA involves two splicing events bringing together sequences from the 5$^{\prime}$ part (287 base pairs), middle (268 base pairs), and 3$^{\prime}$ part (1258 base pairs) of the HTLV-III genome. A similar messenger RNA with a truncated second exon (70 base pairs) does not encode a trans-acting function. It is proposed that this second messenger RNA is the transcript of a gene (3$^{\prime}$-orf) located after the env gene. Messenger RNA's were also identified for the env and gag-pol genes of HTLV-III.