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Efficient HIV‐1 replication can occur in the absence of the viral matrix protein
Author(s) -
Reil Heide,
Bukovsky Anatoly A.,
Gelderblom Hans R.,
Göttlinger Heinrich G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/17.9.2699
Subject(s) - cancer , medical school , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , library science , gerontology , classics , biology , history , medicine , virology , genetics , computer science , medical education
Matrix (MA), a major structural protein of retroviruses, is thought to play a critical role in several steps of the HIV‐1 replication cycle, including the plasma membrane targeting of Gag, the incorporation of envelope (Env) glycoproteins into nascent particles, and the nuclear import of the viral genome in non‐dividing cells. We now show that the entire MA protein is dispensable for the incorporation of HIV‐1 Env glycoproteins with a shortened cytoplasmic domain. Furthermore, efficient HIV‐1 replication in the absence of up to 90% of MA was observed in a cell line in which the cytoplasmic domain of Env is not required. Additional compensatory changes in Gag permitted efficient virus replication even if all of MA was replaced by a heterologous membrane targeting signal. Viruses which lacked the globular domain of MA but retained its N‐terminal myristyl anchor exhibited an increased ability to form both extracellular and intracellular virus particles, consistent with a myristyl switch model of Gag membrane targeting. Pseudotyped HIV‐1 particles that lacked the structurally conserved globular head of MA efficiently infected macrophages, indicating that MA is dispensable for nuclear import in terminally differentiated cells.