Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 transactivator protein Tat is known to play a key role in HIV infection, integrally related to its role in the host cell nucleus/nucleolus. Here we show for the first time that Tat localisation can be modulated by specific methylation, whereby overexpression of active but not catalytically inactive PRMT6 methyltransferase specifically leads to exclusion of Tat from the nucleolus. An R52/53A mutated Tat derivative does not show this redistribution, implying that R52/53, within Tat's nuclear/nucleolar localisation signal, are the targets of PRMT6 activity. Analysis using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching indicate that Tat nucleolar accumulation is largely through binding to nucleolar components, with methylation of Tat by PRMT6 preventing this. To our knowledge, this is the first report of specific protein methylation inhibiting nucleolar retention.

Authors	Fulcher, Alex J.; Sivakumaran, Haran; Jin, Hongping; Rawle, Daniel J.; Harrich, David; Jans, David A.
Journal	Biochim Biophys Acta
Pages	254-262
Volume	1863
Date	1/12/2015
Grant ID
Funding Body
URL	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1016/j.bbamcr.2015.11.019