Article
- The EMBO Journal (2009) 28, 2231 - 2243
- doi:10.1038/emboj.2009.141
Published online: 28 May 2009
There is a Have you seen ...? (August 2009) associated with this Article.
Subject Categories:
Transcriptional competence of the integrated HIV-1 provirus at the nuclear periphery
Mariacarolina Dieudonné1, Paolo Maiuri1, Chiara Biancotto3, Anna Knezevich1, Anna Kula1, Marina Lusic2 and Alessandro Marcello1
- Laboratory of Molecular Virology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Trieste, Italy
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Trieste, Italy
Correspondence to:
Alessandro Marcello, Laboratory of Molecular Virology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Padriciano 99, Trieste 34149, Italy. Tel.: +39 040 375 7384; Fax: +39 040 226 555; E-mail: marcello@icgeb.org
3Present address: IFOM-IEO, Milan, Italy
Received 18 March 2009; Accepted 29 April 2009
Abstract
Spatial distribution of genes within the nucleus contributes to transcriptional control, allowing optimal gene expression as well as constitutive or regulated gene repression. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrates into host chromatin to transcribe and replicate its genome. Lymphocytes harbouring a quiescent but inducible provirus are a challenge to viral eradication in infected patients undergoing antiviral therapy. Therefore, our understanding of the contribution of sub-nuclear positioning to viral transcription may also have far-reaching implications in the pathology of the infection. To gain an insight into the conformation of chromatin at the site of HIV-1 integration, we investigated lymphocytes carrying a single latent provirus. In the silenced state, the provirus was consistently found at the nuclear periphery, associated in trans with a pericentromeric region of chromosome 12 in a significant number of quiescent cells. After induction of the transcription, this association was lost, although the location of the transcribing provirus remained peripheral. These results, extended to several other cell clones, unveil a novel mechanism of transcriptional silencing involved in HIV-1 post-transcriptional latency and reinforce the notion that gene transcription may also occur at the nuclear periphery.
Keywords:
- chromatin,
- HIV-1,
- latency,
- nucleus,
- transcription
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated
REVIEWS
Experimental approaches to the study of HIV-1 latency
Nature Reviews Microbiology Review (01 Feb 2007)
RESEARCH
Nature Genetics Letter (01 Jan 1996)
NF-κB p50 promotes HIV latency through HDAC recruitment and repression of transcriptional initiation
The EMBO Journal Article (11 Jan 2006)
CBF-1 promotes transcriptional silencing during the establishment of HIV-1 latency
The EMBO Journal Article (12 Dec 2007)
