The mechano-chemistry of a monomeric reverse transcriptase

Omri Malik, Hadeel Khamis, Sergei Rudnizky, Ariel Kaplan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Retroviral reverse transcriptase catalyses the synthesis of an integration-competent dsDNA molecule, using as a substrate the viral RNA. Using optical tweezers, we follow the Murine Leukemia Virus reverse transcriptase as it performs stranddisplacement polymerization on a template under mechanical force. Our results indicate that reverse transcriptase functions as a Brownian ratchet, with dNTP binding as the rectifying reaction of the ratchet. We also found that reverse transcriptase is a relatively passive enzyme, able to polymerize on structured templates by exploiting their thermal breathing. Finally, our results indicate that the enzyme enters the recently characterized backtracking state from the pre-translocation complex.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)12954-12962
Number of pages9
JournalNucleic acids research
Volume45
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Dec 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Genetics

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