Identification of cellular proteins that bind to the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 trans-activation-responsive TAR element RNA.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) trans-activator protein Tat activates the expression of its viral long terminal repeat (LTR) through a target transactivation-responsive element termed TAR. We have constructed cell lines that constitutively express the HIV-1 Tat protein. Analyses of nuclear proteins from these cells and from matched control cells that do not express Tat have identified three proteins that bind to a radiolabeled HIV-1 TAR RNA probe. These polypeptides are 100 kDa, 62 kDa, and 46 kDa in size. Competition experiments using a wild-type TAR RNA sequence, a biologically inactive mutant sequence of TAR, and an unrelated RNA species demonstrated that these proteins show higher binding affinity to wild-type TAR than to the other two non-trans-activatable sequences. We hypothesize that these cellular proteins may mediate a function necessary in Tat-dependent activation of the LTR. The fact that no differences were seen in the binding profiles of nuclear proteins to TAR RNA in Tat-producing and Tat-nonproducing cells suggests that Tat does not directly interact with TAR.