Co-expression of the Subunits of the Heterodimer of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase in Escherichia coli

Expression of the 66-kDa form of human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 reverse transcriptase in Escherichia coli leads to isolation of small amounts of a 2 × 66-kDa homodimer and larger amounts of a heterodimer form of the enzyme in which the 66-kDa protein is complexed with its carboxyl-terminally truncated is complexed with its carboxyl-terminally truncated 51-kDa form. The latter arises via proteolysis by contaminating proteases. The heterodimer, which was characterized by gel filtration (apparent native molecular mass of 120–130 kDa), was the most active form of the enzyme (specific activity, 5000 units/mg, cf. < 2000 for the 66-kDa fragment). The 66-kDa fragment alone was shown to be only partially dimerized, with the activity residing mainly in the dimer fraction. Proteolysis of the 66-kDa form resulting partially in the 51-kDa form led to an increase in reverse transcriptase activity. Expression of a truncated version of the protein containing the first 428 amino acids of the reverse transcriptase coding region led to a protein which had low but measurable reverse transcriptase activity (400–500 units/mg). Co-expression of the two proteins on a single plasmid led to expression in a 1:1 ratio. The 1:1 mixture behaved as a heterodimer, as shown by its chromatographic properties. It is likely that the mechanism for the production of heterodimers in vivo involves cleavage of 66-kDa monomers followed by rapid dimerization of the 51- and 66-kDa forms to give the heterodimeric form, which is stable toward further proteolysis.