A Complementary Single-Stranded Docking Site Is Required for Enhancement of Strand Exchange by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Nucleocapsid Protein on Substrates That Model Viral Recombination

Enhancement of strand exchange by nucleocapsid protein (NC) is proposed to occur during retroviral recombination. The mechanism was examined using an RNA (donor)-DNA hybrid that mimicked a retrovirus replication intermediate. This consisted of a 25 base pair hybrid region flanked on each side by single-stranded RNA or DNA. A second set of acceptor RNAs that could bind to the 25-base hybrid region and to various lengths of additional bases on the...