▪ Abstract L1 retrotransposons comprise 17% of the human genome. Although most L1s are
inactive, some elements remain capable of retrotransposition. L1 elements have a long …

Like all retroviruses, the human immunodeficiency virus selectively packages two copies of
its unspliced RNA genome, both of which are utilized for strand-transfer-mediated …

Zinc fingers are small protein domains in which zinc plays a structural role contributing to the
stability of the domain. Zinc fingers are structurally diverse and are present among proteins …

The RNA genome of the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) contains a∼ 120
nucleotide Ψ-packaging signal that is recognized by the nucleocapsid (NC) domain of the …

RNA chaperones are ubiquitous and abundant proteins found in all living organisms and
viruses, where they interact with various classes of RNA. These highly diverse families of …

Retroviral Gag proteins are responsible for coordinating many aspects of virion assembly.
Gag possesses two distinct nucleic acid binding domains, matrix (MA) and nucleocapsid …

The retroviral structural protein, Gag, is capable of independently assembling into virus-like
particles (VLPs) in living cells and in vitro. Immature VLPs of human immunodeficiency virus …

The diverse eukaryotic proteins that contain zinc fingers participate in many aspects of
nucleic acid metabolism, from DNA transcription to RNA degradation, post-transcriptional …

Metallothioneins (MTs) are ubiquitous cysteine-rich proteins with a high affinity for divalent
metal ions such as ZnII, CuI, and CdII that are involved in metal ion homeostasis and …

A series of “molecular domestication” events are thought to have converted an invertebrate
RAG-like (RAGL) transposase into the RAG1–RAG2 (RAG) recombinase, a critical enzyme …