Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) dynamics reflect an intricate balance within the viruses’ host. The virus relies on host replication factors, but must escape or counter its host’s antiviral restriction factors. The interaction between the HIV-1 protein Vif and many cellular restriction factors from the APOBEC3 protein family is a prominent example of this evolutionary arms ra...

The mammalian APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases includes several members that possess potent antiretroviral activity. Human APOBEC3F and APOBEC3G are specifically incorporated into human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) progeny virions in the absence of virion infectivity factor (Vif), where they deaminate deoxycytidine to deoxyuridine on the minus strand of nascent reverse transcripts...

Understanding the host genetics of the immune response in retrovirus infection models could provide insights for basic HIV vaccine discovery. In Friend retrovirus (FV) infection of mice, Fv1 differentially inhibits N-tropic versus B-tropic FV infection by mediating a capsid-dependent post-entry block, Fv2 susceptibility governs splenomegaly induction, and Rfv3 resistance primes a stronger neutr...

Retrotransposons make up over 40% of the mammalian genome. Some copies are still capable of mobilizing and new insertions promote genetic variation. Several members of the APOBEC3 family of DNA cytosine deaminases function to limit the replication of a variety of retroelements, such as the long-terminal repeat (LTR)-containing MusD and Ty1 elements, and that of the non-LTR retrotransposons, L1 ...

The human cytidine deaminase family APOBEC3 represents a novel group of proteins in the field of innate defense mechanisms that has been shown to be active against a variety of retroviruses. Here we examined whether members of the APO-BEC3 family have an impact on retrotransposition of human long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE-1s or L1s). Using a retrotransposition reporter assay in HeLa c...

We used a multivariate data analysis approach to identify motifs associated with HIV hypermutation by different APOBEC3 enzymes. The analysis showed that APOBEC3G targets G mainly within GG, TG, TGG, GGG, TGGG and also GGGT. The G nucleotides flanked by a C at the 3' end (in +1 and +2 positions) were indicated as disfavoured targets by APOBEC3G. The G nucleotides within GGGG were found to be ta...

The field of HIV biology has been galvanized by the discovery of innate APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases, which pose powerful barriers to the replication of HIV and other retroviruses. Rapid progress has been made in understanding their mode of action, intriguing regulation within cells, expanded range of retroviral targets, and the counterstrikes utilized by retroviruses against them. While scienti...

The ability to regulate and even target mutagenesis is an extremely valuable cellular asset. Enzyme-catalyzed DNA cytosine deamination is a molecular strategy employed by vertebrates to promote antibody diversity and defend against foreign nucleic acids. Ten years ago, a family of cellular enzymes was first described with several proving capable of deaminating DNA and inhibiting HIV-1 replicati...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies on HIV quasispecies have revealed HIV compartmentalization in various tissues within an infected individual. Such HIV variation is a result of a combination of factors including high replication and mutation rates, recombination, and APOBEC3-host selective pressure. METHODS To evaluate the differential impact of APOBEC3 editing in HIV-1 compartments, we analyzed the...

APOBEC3 proteins are mammal-specific cytidine deaminases that can restrict retroviral infection. The exact mechanism of the restriction remains unresolved, but one model envisions that uracilated retroviral cDNA, generated by cytidine deamination, is the target of cellular glycosylases. While restriction is unaffected by UNG deficiency, it has been suggested that the SMUG1 glycosylase might pro...