Differential effects of captan on DNA polymerase and ribonuclease H activities of avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase.

Captan was used as an inhibitor of avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase to study the polymerase and RNase H catalytic activities. With purified enzyme, RNase H activity was 10-fold more sensitive to captan than was either the DNA-dependent or RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity. Inhibition of the RNA-dependent polymerase activity could be prevented by dTTP. Conversely, inhibition of this polymerase activity was enhanced by template/primer. The calculated KdTTP of the uninhibited reaction was 5.6 microM. Kinetic studies allow for the proposition of a model for the interaction of captan with the polymerase active center. RNase H activity showed a sigmoidal relationship between activity and substrate concentration. Nuclease activity decreased in Vmax with no change in the Hill coefficient in the presence of captan. Addition of dithiothreitol to the incubation cocktail prevented inhibition by captan of both RNA-dependent polymerase and RNase H activities, suggesting that the (trichloromethyl)thio moiety of captan is involved in the inhibitory action. Captan inhibition suggests the presence of essential amino residues in both polymerase and RNase H active centers.