Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 18;19(5):e1011364.
doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011364. eCollection 2023 May.

APOBECs: Our fickle friends?

Jaquelin P Dudley  1
Affiliations

APOBECs: Our fickle friends?

Jaquelin P Dudley. PLoS Pathog. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Potential mechanisms for virus resistance to APOBEC-mediated inhibition.
(1) vRNAs selected for the absence of certain sequence motifs prevent APOBEC binding or mutagenesis. (2) Viral genomes may avoid repressive complexes with APOBECs (e.g., A3) that interfere with RNA packaging into virions. (3) Virion proteins that bind to APOBECs may have different consequences including A3 degradation or exclusion from virions. Viral proteins, such as MMTV Rem or HIV-1 Vif, lead to proteasomal degradation of their targeted APOBEC proteins. A3 binding to NC, an abundant viral protein, or foamy virus Bet prevents A3 packaging into virus particles. Virion exclusion of A3 will avoid inhibition of viral replication in target cells. A3 in virions also may be inhibited by binding to polymerases (Pol), such as RT. (4) Selection of viral RNA genomes that have few cytidine residues will provide limited opportunities for APOBEC-mediated mutations. (5) RNRs encoded by gammaherpesviruses, DNA viruses that replicate in the nucleus, block deaminase activity and/or promote the export of A3A and A3B enzymes to the cytoplasm. APOBEC, apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing catalytic polypeptide-like; MMTV, mouse mammary tumor virus; NC, nucleocapsid; RNR, ribonucleotide reductase; RT, reverse transcriptase; vRNA, viral genomic RNA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Harris RS, Dudley JP. APOBECs and virus restriction. Virology. 2015;479–480:131–145. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2015.03.012 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xu WK, Byun H, Dudley JP. The Role of APOBECs in Viral Replication. Microorganisms. 2020:8. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8121899 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Teng B, Burant CF, Davidson NO. Molecular cloning of an apolipoprotein B messenger RNA editing protein. Science. 1993;260:1816–1819. doi: 10.1126/science.8511591 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sheehy AM, Gaddis NC, Choi JD, Malim MH. Isolation of a human gene that inhibits HIV-1 infection and is suppressed by the viral Vif protein. Nature. 2002;418:646–650. doi: 10.1038/nature00939 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Conticello SG, Harris RS, Neuberger MS. The Vif protein of HIV triggers degradation of the human antiretroviral DNA deaminase APOBEC3G. Curr Biol. 2003;13:2009–2013. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2003.10.034 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types