Despite intensive study, it is unclear which mechanisms are responsible for latent HIV
infection in vivo. One potential mechanism is inhibition of HIV transcriptional elongation,
which results in short abortive transcripts containing the trans-activation response (TAR)
region. Because the relative levels of total (including short) and processive transcripts
provide measures of HIV transcriptional initiation and elongation, there is a compelling need
for techniques that accurately measure both. Nonetheless, prior assays for total transcripts …