Gene expression profile of HIV-1 Tat expressing cells: a close interplay between proliferative and differentiation signals.

Background: Expression profiling holds great promise for rapid host genome functional analysis. It is plausible that host expression profiling in an infection could serve as a universal phenotype in virally infected cells. Here, we describe the effect of one of the most critical viral activators, Tat, in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells.