The mechanism of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase-catalyzed strand transfer from internal regions of heteropolymeric RNA templates.

The mechanism of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase-catalyzed strand transfer synthesis (i.e. switching of the primer to a new template) from internal regions of natural sequence RNA was investigated. The system consisted of a 142-nucleotide RNA template (donor) primed with a specific 20-nucleotide DNA oligonucleotide used to initiate synthesis. DNA oligonucleotides with homology to internal regions of the donor were used as acceptor templates. In reactions performed in the absence of acceptor template, a prominent DNA synthesis product 75 nucleotides in length resulting from pausing DNA synthesis within the homology zone was observed. Prominent donor RNA degradation products of 47 or 54 nucleotides were also observed, in reactions with 80 or 150 mM KCl, respectively. The lengths indicated a potential 13- or 20-nucleotide long, respectively, complementary region between the DNA and RNAs. The 54-, but not the 47-, nucleotide RNA was susceptible to Escherichia coli RNase H, indicating that the DNA was annealed only to the 54-mer. When acceptor was added, a portion of the 75-nucleotide DNA was chased into transfer product at both salt concentrations, and a portion of the 54-mer RNA became resistant to E. coli RNase H. Evidently, this donor RNA was annealed to the 75-nucleotide long DNA but could be actively displaced by the acceptor. Overall, these observations support two mechanisms for transfer. In one, the pause site-specific DNA dissociates from the donor template before transferring. In the other, the acceptor actively displaces the DNA from the donor.