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PubMedDate not supplied

Organization of the AKR Qa region: structure of a divergent class I sequence, Q5k.

We established the organization of the AKR Qa region and determined the sequence of the Q4 and Q5 genes. Restriction mapping and genomic Southern blot analysis revealed that the AKR strain codes for only three H-2K homologous genes in this region. The AKR Q5 gene is not homologous to the Q5 gene of the C57BL strain, but is presumably allelic to the Q5 gene isolated from Balb/c. The organization and structure of the AKR Qa family is virtually identical to the Qa genes of the C3H mouse. The AKR Q5 gene, in contrast to other H-2K homologous Qa region genes, codes for a typical transmembrane region, and upon transfection into BHK cells, a 1.6 kb Q5 transcript is detected.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A activity and HIV-1 Rev function.

Eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF-5A) is the only cellular protein known to contain the unusual amino acid hypusine, a modification that appears to be required for cell proliferation. This hypusine-modified protein stimulates synthesis of methionyl-puromycin in an in vitro assay which mimics the formation of the first peptide bond during protein synthesis, although the exact role of eIF-5A in vivo is still unknown. The unexpected finding that eIF-5A is a cellular cofactor of the HIV-1 Rev trans-activator protein may, however, provide a novel opportunity to reveal precisely what function eIF-5A performs in eukaryotic cells. In this review article, we first present a brief description of HIV-1 Rev function, followed by an overview of the data that identified eIF-5A as a Rev cofactor and, finally, discuss novel findings with respect to cellular eIF-5A activities.

Amino Acid Sequence↗