Unité de Rétrovirologie Moléculaire, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr Roux, 75724 cedex 15, Paris, France.
A flurry of new papers has shown that HIV reverse transcription is vulnerable to G-->A hypermutation. Apparently, cytidine bases in nascent DNA synthesis are lethally edited by the host cell molecule apolipoprotein B editing complex protein (APOBEC) 3G. This death mechanism is circumvented by the HIV viral infectivity factor protein, which prevents APOBEC3G from entering the virion.