Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and 2 Tat proteins specifically interact with RNA polymerase II

摘要

The Tat-responsive region (TAR) element is a critical RNA regulatory element in the human immunode- ficiency virus (HIV) long terminal repeat, which is required for activation of gene expression by the transactivator protein Tat. Recently, we demonstrated by gel-retardation analysis that RNA polymerase II binds to TAR RNA and that Tat prevents this binding even when Tat does not bind to TAR RNA.