HIV/AIDS Research: Its History & Future Meeting
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Note: genes are usually specified in italics, while their corresponding proteins are specified in roman. For example, the tat gene encodes the Tat or "Trans-Activator of Transcription" protein. Proteins are indexed under Tools, methods, materials, drugs, and treatments. 

All retroviruses have the genes:

  • gag, short for "group-specific antigen": encodes viral capsid proteins
  • pro, short for "protease": encodes protease. In lentiviruses, such as HIV and HTLV, pro is part of pol.
  • pol, short for "polyprotein": encodes enzymes necessary for viral replication, including reverse transcriptase, protease, and integrase.
  • env, short for "envelope": encodes the proteins found on the outer envelope of the virus, which are necessary for the virus to attach to target cells and gain entry.
  • LTR (long terminal repeat): identical sequences of DNA of several hundred base pairs located at each end of the viral genome. 

HIV therefore has the genes gag, pol, env, and the LTRs, as well as the following regulatory and transactivation genes:

The HTLVs have LTRs, gag, pol, and env genes, and the pX region situated between env and the 3'-LTR which contains the rex regulatory genes and tax transactivation genes.

Viral genomes are typically represented in this kind of schematic map, which shows the genome structures and for HTLV-I, HTLV-II, HIV-1, and HIV-2:

The diagram above and the nomenclature for HTLV and HIV genes were codified in Robert C. Gallo et al., “HIV/HTLV Gene Nomenclature,” Nature 333, no. 6173 (June 1988): 504–504, doi:10.1038/333504a0. For a more detailed discussion of the HTLV and HIV genomes see 5.1 Flossie Wong-Staal — Discovery of Human Retroviral Transactivators.

 

Other genes and genetics terminology:

 

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