Positive selection of primate TRIM5 α identifies a critical species-specific retroviral restriction domain

Sawyer, Sara L.; Wu, Lily I.; Emerman, Michael; Malik, Harmit S.

doi:10.1073/pnas.0409853102

Positive selection of primate TRIM5 α identifies a critical species-specific retroviral restriction domain

Primate genomes encode a variety of innate immune strategies to defend themselves against retroviruses. One of these, TRIM5α, can restrict diverse retroviruses in a species-specific manner. Thus, whereas rhesus TRIM5α can strongly restrict HIV-1, human TRIM5α only has weak HIV-1 restriction. The …