Transcriptional inaccuracy threshold attenuates differences in RNA-dependent DNA synthesis fidelity between retroviral reverse transcriptases

In M13mp2 lacZα forward mutation assays measuring intrinsic fidelity of DNA-dependent DNA synthesis, wild-type human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RTs of group M/subtype B previously showed >10-fold higher error rates than murine leukaemia virus (MLV) and avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) RTs. An adapted version of the assay was used to obtain error rates of RNA-dependent DNA synthesis for several RTs, including wild-type HIV-1(BH10), HIV-1(ESP49), AMV and MLV RTs, and the high-fidelity mutants of HIV-1(ESP49) RT K65R and K65R/V75I. Our results showed that there were less than two-fold differences in fidelity between the studied RTs with error rates ranging within 2.5 × 10(−5) and 3.5 × 10(−5). These results were consistent with the existence of a transcriptional inaccuracy threshold, generated by the RNA polymerase while synthesizing the RNA template used in the assay. A modest but consistent reduction of the inaccuracy threshold was achieved by lowering the pH and Mg(2+) concentration of the transcription reaction. Despite assay limitations, we conclude that HIV-1(BH10) and HIV-1(ESP49) RTs are less accurate when copying DNA templates than RNA templates. Analysis of the RNA-dependent mutational spectra revealed a higher tendency to introduce large deletions at the initiation of reverse transcription by all HIV-1 RTs except the double-mutant K65R/V75I.