Figure 4

HBZ transcripts are alternatively spliced. (A) The position of splice junctions within the two HBZ SP1 and SP2 RNA are positioned relative to the 3'LTR and the HBZ ORF. Nucleotide numbering corresponds to the antisense strand. (B) Predicted amino acid sequences for all potential HBZ isoforms are shown above each cDNA sequence. Sequences from exons 1 and 2 are separated and identified accordingly. The AUG initiation codon in unspliced and SP1 HBZ RNAs are highlighted in bold. (C) RNA isolated from HTLV-I-infected cell lines and 293T cells transfected with 5 μg K30, K30-3'/5681 or ACH was analyzed by RT-PCR using RT primer 21-5 and PCR primers 21-5 and 20-19 (or 20–27 for ACH) (see panel A for positioning). (D) RNAs from cellular clones isolated from four different infected patients and from MT4 cells were analyzed by a modified RT-PCR protocol using a PCR primer overlapping the SP1 splice junction. M = 100 bp marker (asterisk indicates the 600 bp band).