Ribonucleoprotein complex formation by the human hepatitis B virus polymerase.

Human hepatitis B virus (HBV) polymerase (pol or RT), when expressed in Xenopus oocytes upon injection of synthetic minimal pol RNA (RT RNA), assembles into a higher molecular weight complex with the characteristics of a ribonuclear protein (RNP) complex. In vitro RNA competition binding data suggest that RT RNA is preferentially packaged into this complex even though it lacks the authentic viral encapsidation signal, epsilon, and viral capsid protein sequences. Consistent with this finding, the in vitro polymerase reaction performed in pol-expressing oocyte extracts generates primarily HBV-specific DNAs even when the pol template is challenged with a coinjected non-HBV competitor RNA. These results suggest that interaction between pol and its cognate RNA can be mediated by sequences other than the known packaging elements. We speculate that HBV RNP complexes containing at least polymerase and viral RNA may play a role in viral nucleocapsid assembly and may help to segregate HBV reverse transcription from the cellular milieu in vivo.