Motivation: Transposable elements constitute quite significant static and dynamic components of eukaryotic genomes. Moreover, transposable elements serve as efficient tools in genetic engineering. Therefore, identification and studies of transposable elements are important for researchers working in different fields of molecular biology. Results: Based on computational studies of eukaryotic gen...

We have established the integrase of the Streptomyces phage phiBT1 as a tool for eukaryotic genome manipulation. We show that the phiBT1 integrase promotes efficient reciprocal and conservative site-specific recombination in vertebrate cells and in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, thus establishing the utility of this protein for genome manipulation in a wide range of eukaryotes. We show that the phi...

C an retroviral integration be targeted to preselected locations in the human genome? If so, targeting might improve the safety of retroviral vectors for use in gene therapy. Directing integration of vectors to benign locations in the human genome, for example, might reduce the risk of transformation by insertional activation of oncogenes. This issue has become a lot less theoretical with the r...

In a recent report in Trends in Genetics, Gao and Voytas [1] described a new family of integrase genes that were identified in diverse eukaryotic species, including slime mold, Caenorhabditis elegans, C. briggsae, zebrafish, Takifugu rubripes, Xiphophorus maculates, cow, dog and humans. These genes potentially encode proteins containing w400 amino acids with homology to retroviral integrases an...

INTRODUCTION HIV-1 group O (HIV-O) is a rare HIV-1 variant characterized by a high number of polymorphisms, especially in the integrase gene, e.g. positions L74I, S153A, G163Q and T206S. As HIV-O integrase enzymes have not previously been studied, our aim was to assess the impact of HIV-O integrase polymorphisms on susceptibility to integrase inhibitors and emergence of resistance associated mu...

BACKGROUND Women are under-represented in HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) studies. Guidelines for selection of ART as initial therapy in patients with HIV-1 infection do not contain sex-specific treatment. We aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of the single tablet integrase inhibitor regimen containing elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate compared wit...

Article history: Received 5 May 2016 Accepted 5 May 2016 Available online 7 May 2016 lishment of latency, as the cellular transcriptional state influences both HIV transcription driven by its promoter located in the long terminal region (LTR) and reactivation from latency. Inhibitors that target the interaction between integrase and LEDGF are variously termed noncatalytic integrase inhibitors (...

We created an HIV-1 cloning vector, pNL4.3DeltaIN, to generate recombinant infectious molecular clones for analysis of patient-derived HIV-1 integrase coding regions. Using this vector, we constructed a panel of clinically derived viruses with the canonical patterns of raltegravir resistance mutations and submitted the panel to the NIH AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program. Investigationa...

Raltegravir, an inhibitor of the HIV-1 integrase enzyme, is the first available agent in a new class of antiretroviral drugs. Raltegravir has been studied extensively in clinical trials, and has been well tolerated and highly effective in both treatment-naïve and -experienced patients. Resistance to raltegravir is unusual given its recent availability, but resistance with identified viral mutat...