Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.48 (transcriptase)
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The alpha, beta2, and alphabeta forms of the RNA-dependent DNA polymerase of avian sarcoma virus B77 grown in duck embryo fibroblasts have been compared with respect to several kinetic properties. The following results were obtained. 1. The Km values for dTTP and dGTP for enzyme forms alpha, beta2, and alphabeta were 77, 39, and 74, and 6.8, 3.1, and 6.1 micronM, respectively. 2. The affinity of 70 S Rous sarcoma virus RNA for enzyme form alphabeta was about twice that for the other two forms. 3. The relative specific activities of the three enzyme forms on synthetic primer-templates such as poly(rA)-poly(dT) were almost the same. The viral 70 S RNA-dependent specific activities were 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower and in the ratio of 1:3:5 for enzyme forms alpha:beta2:alphabeta. Addition of exogenous oligo(dT) stimulated the 70 S viral RNA-dependent activity of enzyme forms alphabeta and beta2 by a factor of 3, and that of enzyme form alpha by a factor of 30, so that it then became the most active transcriptase of viral 70 S RNA. 4. The largest transcripts formed by the three enzyme forms with 70 S viral RNA as primer-template were about 4,500 nucleotides long. About one-third of the total amount of polynucleotides polymerized by the alphabeta enzyme was in the form of such transcripts. This proportion was far higher than for the other two enzyme forms. 5. All three enzyme forms were capable of transcribing single-stranded into double-stranded DNA. 6. The 3-propylcyclohexyl piperidyl derivative of rifamycin SV, at a concentration of 100 microng/ml, inhibited enzyme forms beta2 and alphabeta by over 99.5 and 96%, respectively, but enzyme form alpha by only about 60%. 7. The beta2 and alphabeta forms of the enzyme were processive DNA polymerases, the alpha form a nonprocessive polymerase. 8. In general, these results indicate that in most respects the properties of the dimeric enzyme forms resemble each other much more closely than those of the alpha form. In some very important respects, such as affinity for viral RNA and the size of transcripts formed from it, the alphabeta enzyme form performs significantly better than either of the other two enzyme forms.
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PMID:RNA-dependent DNA polymerase of avian sarcoma virus B77. II. Comparison of the catalytic properties of the alpha, beta2, and alphabeta enzyme forms. 6 35

Reverse transcriptase of the avian sarcoma and leukosis retroviruses is a heterodimer composed of a 63-kDa alpha and a 95-kDa beta polypeptide chain, both of which are encoded in the pol gene and are produced by proteolytic processing of a larger precursor. We previously constructed a bacterial expression clone of the entire pol coding region that produces a protein 4 kDa larger than the mature viral beta subunit. By use of this clone and synthetic oligonucleotides to introduce stop codons, two derivatives have been constructed: one that directs synthesis of a protein equivalent to the mature beta subunit and the other that directs synthesis of a protein equivalent to alpha subunit. Predicted amino acid sequences of these proteins differ from their viral counterparts only by an initiator methionine that was added to the N termini for expression in Escherichia coli. Both bacterially expressed proteins exhibit reverse transcriptase activity and appear to function as homodimers. The properties of these proteins resemble those of the viral reverse transcriptase heterodimer; however, the bacterially produced alpha dimer protein could be distinguished from the other proteins by its increased sensitivity to heat inactivation, which also has been reported for the corresponding viral product. These results show that correct folding and expression of enzymatic function does not require formation of a precursor. The alpha and beta clones provide a convenient source of individual pol gene products for further evaluation of their roles in the synthesis and integration of retroviral DNA.
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PMID:The alpha and beta chains of avian retrovirus reverse transcriptase independently expressed in Escherichia coli: characterization of enzymatic activities. 245 57