A comparative binding study of BIV Tat peptide against its TAR RNA duplex, RNA-DNA heteroduplex and DNA duplex

Association between RNA and DNA strands to form RNA-DNA heteroduplex is important in many biological processes. Herein, binding affinities of a 17-mer BIV Tat peptide is compared with TAR DNA duplex, RNA-DNA heteroduplex and RNA duplex. It was observed that binding affinities of Tat peptide is comparable against DNA-RNA heteroduplex and RNA duplex, whereas DNA duplex binding is decidedly poor.