Professor Don Dennis
RESEARCH
The area of information transfer has been of interest and focus for the past decade in our laboratory. We have developed a model for the mechanics of the transcription polymerization process which involves a rotational translocation. This hypothesis depicts the polymerase enzyme as a spinning element containing two active sites which are used in an alternating sequence such that each 180
° of rotation adds another nucleotide monomer to the growing chain.Our current test system is the HIV- reverse transcriptase enzyme conducting second strand synthesis. The characterization of the active site(s) for each of several successive registries is being determined using the photoaffinity probe 4-Thio dUTP as well as several other probes.
The results of recent experiments are reported where a specific hexapeptide of the p66 subunit is located at the binding domain of the active site of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase enzyme.
(Original hypothesis)
Dennis, D.; Sylvester, J. E. (1981) FEBS LETT. 124 135.
(Current result)
Lin, S.; Henzel, W. J.; Nayak, S.; Dennis, D. (1998) JBC
Publications