Open AccessChimeric Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Containing Murine Leukemia Virus Matrix Assembles in Murine Cells
Author(s) -
Margaret A. Reed,
Roberto Mariani,
Liana Sheppard,
Katja Pekrun,
Nathaniel R. Landau,
Nay-Wei Soong
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.617
H-Index - 292
eISSN - 1070-6321
pISSN - 0022-538X
DOI - 10.1128/jvi.76.1.436-443.2002
Subject(s) - biology , murine leukemia virus , virology , transfection , gp41 , virus , viral matrix protein , microbiology and biotechnology , viral replication , viral envelope , cell culture , antibody , epitope , genetics , immunology
Murine cells do not support efficient assembly and release of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) virions. HIV-1-infected mouse cells that express transfected human cyclin T1 synthesize abundant Gag precursor polyprotein, but inefficiently assemble and release virions. This assembly defect may result from a failure of the Gag polyprotein precursor to target to the cell membrane. Plasma membrane targeting of the precursor is mediated by the amino-terminal region of polyprotein. To compensate for the assembly block, we substituted the murine leukemia virus matrix coding sequences into an infectious HIV-1 clone. Transfection of murine fibroblasts expressing cyclin T1 with the chimeric proviruses resulted in viruses that were efficiently assembled and released. Chimeric viruses, in which the cytoplasmic tail of the transmembrane subunit, gp41, was truncated to prevent potential interference between the envelope glycoprotein and the heterologous matrix, could infect human and murine cells. They failed to further replicate in the murine cells, but replicated with delayed kinetics in human MT-4 cells. These findings may be useful for establishing a murine model for HIV-1 replication.