Functional analysis of simian immunodeficiency virus SIVAGM long terminal repeat

We have previously shown that long terminal repeats (LTRs) derived from various isolates of SIVAGM share a unique functional property. In the absence of viral Tat, all SIVAGM LTRs act as much more efficient promoters than any of the other LTRs derived from representative primate immunodeficiency viruses. In the presence of Tat, however, SIVAGM LTRs are activated relatively inefficiently. To map the elements that confer these features on the SIVAGM LTR, a number of deletion mutants were constructed, and their promoter activities were determined using a bacterial CAT gene as a marker. The results obtained indicated that various elements located in the U3 region may contribute to the high basal promoter activity and that no negative elements are present in the region. The Tat-responsive sequence TAR was localized to the R region as observed for the other LTRs. A mutant carrying a single nucleotide deletion in this region completely lost responsiveness to Tat protein.