This is a question for virologists, molecular biologists and biochemists. The import of HIV1 DNA has been shown to rely on the nuclear pore complex protein RANBP2. RANBP2 has several functional domains, including a string of eight zinc fingers. Do you think it is possible that there could be be direct physical interactions between those zinc fingers and HIV1 DNA, and that this interaction would be required for proper import of HIV1 DNA in the nucleus?
The importance of RanBP2 for HIV-1 infection is more in terms of the cyclophilin like domain and not the Zinc fingers. There are certain mutations in HIV-1 capsid that are quite infectious even when RanBP2 is knocked down, suggesting that HIV-1 capsid interacts with RanBP2 and not the HIV-1 DNA. The cyclophilin loop of RanBP2 has been shown to bind to HIV capsid and that provides the relevance of RanBP2 to HIV infection. So, in short, although the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, evidence currently available points out that RanBP2 does not interact directly with HIV-1 DNA.
As for virologists, first HIV DNA cannot be imported to the nucleus because HIV is RNA retrovirus. Second, nef- and pol-encoded relatively conserved sequences proteins interact with intracellular proteins including RanBP2 while transported to nucleus. I don't know about Zink fingers, but it is protein-protein, not protein-DNA interaction.
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