{"doi":"10.1093/nar/gkab342","title":"The three-way junction structure of the HIV-1 PBS-segment binds host enzyme important for viral infectivity","abstract":"HIV-1 reverse transcription initiates at the primer binding site (PBS) in the viral genomic RNA (gRNA). Although the structure of the PBS-segment undergoes substantial rearrangement upon tRNALys3 annealing, the proper folding of the PBS-segment during gRNA packaging is important as it ensures loading of beneficial host factors. DHX9/RNA helicase A (RHA) is recruited to gRNA to enhance the processivity of reverse transcriptase. Because the molecular details of the interactions have yet to be defined, we solved the solution structure of the PBS-segment preferentially bound by RHA. Evidence is provided that PBS-segment adopts a previously undefined adenosine-rich three-way junction structure encompassing the primer activation stem (PAS), tRNA-like element (TLE) and tRNA annealing arm. Disruption of the PBS-segment three-way junction structure diminished reverse transcription products and led to reduced viral infectivity. Because of the existence of the tRNA annealing arm, the TLE and PAS form a bent helical structure that undergoes shape-dependent recognition by RHA double-stranded RNA binding domain 1 (dsRBD1). Mutagenesis and phylogenetic analyses provide evidence for conservation of the PBS-segment three-way junction structure that is preferentially bound by RHA in support of efficient reverse transcription, the hallmark step of HIV-1 replication.","journal":"Nucleic Acids Research","year":2021,"id":173445,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":24,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9494,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":452953,"name":"Thomas Gremminger","orcid":"0000-0001-5835-4328","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":711209,"name":"Gatikrushna Singh","orcid":"0000-0002-9870-5556","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":480944,"name":"Yi Cheng","orcid":"0000-0003-4412-4235","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":328289,"name":"Jun Li","orcid":"0000-0002-1746-6793","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315102,"name":"Liming Qiu","orcid":"0000-0003-3098-5245","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":711210,"name":"Juan Ji","orcid":"0000-0003-4045-5205","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482637,"name":"Margaret J. Lange","orcid":"0000-0001-8901-975X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369909,"name":"Xiaobing Zuo","orcid":"0000-0002-0134-4804","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252246,"name":"Shi‐Jie Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-8093-7244","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315107,"name":"Xiaoqin Zou","orcid":"0000-0003-0637-8648","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17939,"name":"Kathleen Boris‐Lawrie","orcid":"0000-0001-6366-6270","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":452955,"name":"Xiao Heng","orcid":"0000-0001-8448-3596","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":452954,"name":"Zhenwei Song","orcid":"0000-0002-9679-5113","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":95,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:46:49.903770Z","pmid":"33978756","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}