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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 12954-12962 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Nucleic acids research |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 22 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 15 Dec 2017 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Genetics