genome [11]. It is made up of the genes gag, pro, pol, and env flanked by long terminal repeats on each end, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Georgia Institute of Technology and expression of the genome yields Gag and Gag-Pro-Pol polyprotein precursors [12, 13]. HTLV-I protease is Atlanta, Georgia 30332 encoded in a different reading frame than the Gag precursor and spans from the 3Ј end of the gag region to the 5Ј end of pol region. Synthesis of the protease occurs Human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is a human by ribosomal frameshifting [14], and a second ribosomal retrovirus that has been clinically associated with adult frameshift produces the 95 kDa Pol polyprotein. Upon T cell leukemia/lymphoma, and it has been designated viral maturation, the retroviral protease (PR) cleaves the as a dangerous emerging pathogen by the Centers for 55 kDa Gag precursor into the matrix (MA), capsid (CA), Disease Control. Like other retroviruses, proteolytic and nucleocapsid (NC) proteins. The Pol polyprotein is processing of specific sites in polyprotein precursors cleaved into reverse transcriptase/RNase H (RT-RH) and by a retroviral protease is an essential step in the viral integrase (IN). Because of its essential role in viral replilife cycle. HTLV-I protease is a 28 kDa homodimeric cation, HTLV-I protease is an attractive target for the aspartic acid protease that has only modest homology development of inhibitors to treat HTLV-I infection. Howto other retroviral proteases. The enzymology of HTLV-I ever, it has received little attention compared to its more protease has only recently begun to be investigated, famous cousin HIV protease, which has been studied and although it shares many characteristics of other extensively. This review details what is known about the retroviral proteases, it exhibits distinct substrate activity, specificity, and inhibition of HTLV-I protease. specificity and different susceptibility to aspartic acid protease inhibitors. This review describes what has been reported to date on the structural characteriza-Retroviral Aspartic Acid Proteases tion, specificity, and inhibition of HTLV-I protease. Cellular aspartic proteases, which are grouped in the A1 family of aspartic proteases, contain two aspartic