scholarly journals Mutational Analysis of the C-Terminal Gag Cleavage Sites in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (18) ◽  
pp. 10047-10054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori V. Coren ◽  
James A. Thomas ◽  
Elena Chertova ◽  
Raymond C. Sowder ◽  
Tracy D. Gagliardi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Gag is expressed as a polyprotein that is cleaved into six proteins by the viral protease in a maturation process that begins during assembly and budding. While processing of the N terminus of Gag is strictly required for virion maturation and infectivity, the necessity for the C-terminal cleavages of Gag is less well defined. To examine the importance of this process, we introduced a series of mutations into the C terminus of Gag that interrupted the cleavage sites that normally produce in the nucleocapsid (NC), spacer 2 (SP2), or p6Gag proteins. Protein analysis showed that all of the mutant constructs produced virions efficiently upon transfection of cells and appropriately processed Gag polyprotein at the nonmutated sites. Mutants that produced a p9NC/SP2 protein exhibited only minor effects on HIV-1 infectivity and replication. In contrast, mutants that produced only the p8SP2/p6 or p15NC/SP2/p6 protein had severe defects in infectivity and replication. To identify the key defective step, we quantified reverse transcription and integration products isolated from infected cells by PCR. All mutants tested produced levels of reverse transcription products either similar to or only somewhat lower than that of wild type. In contrast, mutants that failed to cleave the SP2-p6Gag site produced drastically less provirus than the wild type. Together, our results show that processing of the SP2-p6Gag and not the NC-SP2 cleavage site is important for efficient viral DNA integration during infection in vitro. In turn, this finding suggests an important role for the p9NC/SP2 species in some aspect of integration.

2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (14) ◽  
pp. 9081-9087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Wei ◽  
Shan Cen ◽  
Meijuan Niu ◽  
Fei Guo ◽  
Lawrence Kleiman

ABSTRACT \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(tRNA_{3}^{Lys}\) \end{document} , the primer for reverse transcriptase in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), anneals to the primer binding site (PBS) in HIV-1 RNA. It has been shown that altering the PBS and U5 regions upstream of the PBS in HIV-1 so as to be complementary to sequences in tRNAMet or tRNAHis will allow these tRNA species to be stably used as primers for reverse transcription. We have examined the replication of these mutant viruses in Sup-T1 cells. When Sup-T1 cells are infected by cocultivation with HIV-1-transfected 293T cells, viruses using tRNAHis or tRNAMet are produced at rates that are approximately 1/10 or 1/100, respectively, of rates for wild-type virions that use \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(tRNA_{3}^{Lys}\) \end{document} . When Sup-T1 cells are directly infected with equal amounts of these different viruses isolated from the culture supernatant of transfected 293T cells, virions using tRNAMet are produced at 1/100 the rate of wild-type viruses, and production of virions using tRNAHis is not detected. Both wild-type and mutant virions selectively package tRNALys only, and examination of the ability of total viral RNA to prime reverse transcription in vitro indicates a >80% reduction in the annealing of tRNAHis or tRNAMet to the mutant viral RNAs. PCR analysis of which of the three primer tRNAs is used indicates that only \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(tRNA_{3}^{Lys}\) \end{document} is detected as primer in wild-type virions and only tRNAHis is detected as primer in virions containing a PBS complementary to tRNAHis, while the mutant viruses containing a PBS complementary to tRNAMet use both tRNAMet and \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(tRNA_{1,2}^{Lys}\) \end{document} as primer tRNAs.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 3907-3915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Huang ◽  
Ahmad Khorchid ◽  
Juliana Gabor ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Xuguang Li ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We have studied the effect of mutations in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nucleocapsid (NC) sequence on tRNA3 Lys genomic placement, i.e., the in vivo placement of primer tRNA3 Lys on the HIV-1 primer binding site (PBS). HIV-1 produced from COS cells transfected with wild-type or mutant proviral DNA was used in this study. We have found that mutations in the amino acid sequences flanking the first Cys-His box in the NC sequence produce the maximum inhibition of genomic placement. A similar finding was obtained when the NC-facilitated annealing of primer tRNA3 Lys to the HIV PBS in vitro was studied. However, since the genomic placement of tRNA3 Lys occurs independently of precursor protein processing, the NC mutations studied here have probably exerted their effect through one or both of the precursor proteins, Pr55 gag and/or Pr160 gag-pol . One mutation in the linker region between the two Cys-His boxes, P31L, prevented packaging of both Pr160 gag-pol and tRNA3 Lys and prevented the genomic placement of tRNA3 Lys. Both packaging and genomic placement were rescued by cotransfection with a plasmid coding for wild-type Pr160 gag-pol . For other linker mutations [R7R10K11 S, R32G, and S3(32-34)], packaging of Pr160 gag-pol and tRNA3 Lyswas not affected, but genomic placement was, and placement could not be rescued by cotransfection with plasmids coding for either Pr55 gag or Pr160 gag-pol . After placement, the initiation of reverse transcription within extracellular virions is characterized by a 2-base DNA extension of the placed tRNA3 Lys. This process requires precursor processing, and those NC mutations which showed the most inhibition of initiation were in either of the two NC Cys-His boxes. Destabilization of a U5 stem-A-rich loop immediately upstream of the PBS (through deletion of four consecutive A’s in the loop) did not affect the in vivo genomic placement of tRNA3 Lys but resulted in the presence in the extracellular virus of longer cDNA extensions of tRNA3 Lys, with a corresponding decrease in the presence of unextended and 2-base-extended tRNA3 Lys.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (24) ◽  
pp. 12081-12087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahfuz Khan ◽  
Minerva Garcia-Barrio ◽  
Michael D. Powell

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Nef protein exerts several effects, both on infected cells and as a virion protein, which work together to enhance viral replication. One of these activities is the ability to enhance infectivity and the formation of proviral DNA. The mechanism of this enhancement remains incompletely understood. We show that virions with nef deleted can be restored to wild-type infectivity by stimulating intravirion reverse transcription. Particle composition and measures of reverse transcriptase activity remain the same for Nef+ and Nef− virions both before and after natural endogenous reverse transcription (NERT) treatment. The effect of NERT treatment on virions pseudotyped with murine leukemia virus envelope protein was similar to that on particles pseudotyped with HIV-1 envelope protein. However, virions pseudotyped with vesicular stomatitis virus G envelope protein showed no influence of Nef on NERT enhancement of infectivity. These observations suggest that Nef may function at a level prior to reverse transcription. Since NERT treatment results in partial disassembly of the viral core, we speculate that Nef may function at the level of core particle disassembly.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 5045-5055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Zhu ◽  
Charles Dobard ◽  
Samson A. Chow

ABSTRACT Retroviral integrase catalyzes the essential step of integrating a double-stranded DNA copy of the viral genome into a host cell chromosome. Mutational studies have revealed that integrase is involved in additional steps of viral replication, but the mechanism for the pleiotropic effect is not well characterized. Since Cys residues generally play crucial roles in protein structure and function, we introduced Cys-to-Ser substitutions at positions 56, 65, and 130 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase to determine their effects on integration activity and viral replication. None of the substitutions significantly affected the enzymatic activities in vitro. When introduced into the NL4-3 molecular clone of HIV-1, mutant viruses encoding Cys mutations at positions 56 and 65 of integrase replicated similarly to the wild-type virus in CD4+-T-cell lines, whereas the C130S-containing virus was noninfectious. The entry and postintegration steps of the viral life cycle for all mutant viruses were normal, and all had particle-associated reverse transcriptase (RT) activity. However, early reverse-transcribed DNA products were absent in the lysate of cells infected with the C130S mutant virus, indicating that the mutation abolished the ability of the virus to initiate endogenous reverse transcription. Coimmunoprecipitation using purified integrase and RT showed that the C-terminal domain of wild-type HIV-1 integrase interacted with RT. The interaction between integrase and RT was not affected in the presence of a reducing or alkylating agent, suggesting that the interaction did not involve a disulfide linkage. The C130S substitution within the core region may disrupt the protein recognition interface of the C-terminal domain and abolish its ability to interact with RT. Our results indicate that integrase plays an important role during the reverse-transcription step of the viral life cycle, possibly through physical interactions with RT.


2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (19) ◽  
pp. 9318-9328 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Thomas ◽  
William J. Bosche ◽  
Teresa L. Shatzer ◽  
Donald G. Johnson ◽  
Robert J. Gorelick

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) requires that its genome be reverse transcribed into double-stranded DNA for productive infection of cells. This process requires not only reverse transcriptase but also the nucleocapsid protein (NC), which functions as a nucleic acid chaperone. Reverse transcription generally begins once the core of the virion enters the cytoplasm of a newly infected cell. However, some groups have reported the presence of low levels of viral DNA (vDNA) within particles prior to infection, the significance and function of which is controversial. We report here that several HIV-1 NC mutants, which we previously identified as being replication defective, contain abnormally high levels of intravirion DNA. These findings were further reinforced by the inability of these NC mutants to perform endogenous reverse transcription (ERT), in contrast to the readily measurable ERT activity in wild-type HIV-1. When either of the NC mutations is combined with a mutation that inactivates the viral protease, we observed a significant reduction in the amount of intravirion DNA. Interestingly, we also observed high levels of intravirion DNA in the context of wild-type NC when we delayed budding by means of a PTAP(−) (Pro-Thr-Ala-Pro) mutation. Premature reverse transcription is most probably occurring before these mutant virions bud from producer cells, but we fail to see any evidence that the NC mutations alter the timing of Pr55Gag processing. Critically, our results also suggest that the presence of intravirion vDNA could serve as a diagnostic for identifying replication-defective HIV-1.


2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (7) ◽  
pp. 3497-3511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kallesh Danappa Jayappa ◽  
Zhujun Ao ◽  
Xiaoxia Wang ◽  
Andrew J. Mouland ◽  
Sudhanshu Shekhar ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn this study, we examined the requirement for host dynein adapter proteins such as dynein light chain 1 (DYNLL1), dynein light chain Tctex-type 1 (DYNLT1), and p150Gluedin early steps of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication. We found that the knockdown (KD) of DYNLL1, but not DYNLT1 or p150Glued, resulted in significantly lower levels of HIV-1 reverse transcription in cells. Following an attempt to determine how DYNLL1 could impact HIV-1 reverse transcription, we detected the DYNLL1 interaction with HIV-1 integrase (IN) but not with capsid (CA), matrix (MA), or reverse transcriptase (RT) protein. Furthermore, by mutational analysis of putative DYNLL1 interaction motifs in IN, we identified the motifs52GQVD and250VIQD in IN as essential for DYNLL1 interaction. The DYNLL1 interaction-defective IN mutant HIV-1 (HIV-1INQ53A/Q252A) exhibited impaired reverse transcription. Through further investigations, we have also detected relatively smaller amounts of particulate CA in DYNLL1-KD cells or in infections with HIV-1INQ53A/Q252Amutant virus. Overall, our study demonstrates the novel interaction between HIV-1 IN and cellular DYNLL1 proteins and suggests the requirement of this virus-cell interaction for proper uncoating and efficient reverse transcription of HIV-1.IMPORTANCEHost cellular DYNLL1, DYNLT1, and p150Gluedproteins have been implicated in the replication of several viruses. However, their roles in HIV-1 replication have not been investigated. For the first time, we demonstrated that during viral infection, HIV-1 IN interacts with DYNLL1, and their interaction was found to have a role in proper uncoating and efficient reverse transcription of HIV-1. Thus, interaction of IN and DYNLL1 may be a potential target for future anti-HIV therapy. Moreover, while our study has evaluated the involvement of IN in HIV-1 uncoating and reverse transcription, it also predicts a possible mechanism by which IN contributes to these early viral replication steps.


1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 2499-2508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Ulich ◽  
Amanda Dunne ◽  
Emma Parry ◽  
C. William Hooker ◽  
Richard B. Gaynor ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Tat expression is required for efficient human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcription. In the present study, we generated a series of 293 cell lines that contained a provirus with atat gene deletion (Δtat). Cell lines that contained Δtat and stably transfected vectors containing either wild-type tat or a number of tat mutants were obtained so that the abilities of these tat genes to stimulate HIV-1 gene expression and reverse transcription could be compared. tat genes with mutations in the amino terminus did not stimulate either viral gene expression or HIV-1 reverse transcription. In contrast, tat mutants in the activation, core, and basic domains of Tat did not stimulate HIV-1 gene expression but markedly stimulated HIV-1 reverse transcription. No differences in the levels of virion genomic RNA or tRNA3 Lys were seen in the HIV-1 Δtat viruses complemented with either mutant or wild-type tat. Finally, overexpression of the Tat-associated kinases CDK7 and CDK9, which are involved in Tat activation of HIV-1 transcription, was not able to complement the reverse transcription defects associated with the lack of a functionaltat gene. These results indicate that the mechanism by which tat modulates HIV-1 reverse transcription is distinct from its ability to activate HIV-1 gene expression.


1999 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gadi Borkow ◽  
Dominique Arion ◽  
Mark A. Wainberg ◽  
Michael A. Parniak

ABSTRACT N-[4-Chloro-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyloxy)phenyl]-2-methyl-3-furancarbothioamide (UC781) is an exceptionally potent nonnucleoside inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase. We found that a 1:1 molar combination of UC781 and 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT) showed high-level synergy in inhibiting the replication of AZT-resistant virus, implying that UC781 can restore antiviral activity to AZT against AZT-resistant HIV-1. Neither the nevirapine plus AZT nor the 2′,5′-bis-O-(t-butyldimethylsilyl)-3′-spiro-5"-(4"-amino-1",2"-oxathiole-2",2"-dioxide plus AZT combinations had this effect. Studies with purified HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (from a wild type and an AZT-resistant mutant) showed that UC781 was a potent inhibitor of the pyrophosphorolytic cleavage of nucleotides from the 3′ end of the DNA polymerization primer, a process that we have proposed to be critical for the phenotypic expression of AZT resistance. Combinations of UC781 plus AZT did not act in synergy to inhibit the replication of either wild-type virus or UC781-resistant HIV-1. Importantly, the time to the development of viral resistance to combinations of UC781 plus AZT is significantly delayed compared to the time to the development of resistance to either drug alone.


2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (8) ◽  
pp. 2701-2708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirotomo Nakata ◽  
Masayuki Amano ◽  
Yasuhiro Koh ◽  
Eiichi Kodama ◽  
Guangwei Yang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We examined the intracytoplasmic anabolism and kinetics of antiviral activity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) of a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, 4′-ethynyl-2-fluoro-2′-deoxyadenosine (EFdA), which has potent activity against wild-type and multidrug-resistant HIV-1 strains. When CEM cells were exposed to 0.1 μM [3H]EFdA or [3H]3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (AZT) for 6 h, the intracellular EFdA-triphosphate (TP) level was 91.6 pmol/109 cells, while that of AZT was 396.5 pmol/109 cells. When CEM cells were exposed to 10 μM [3H]EFdA, the amount of EFdA-TP increased by 22-fold (2,090 pmol/109 cells), while the amount of [3H]AZT-TP increased only moderately by 2.4-fold (970 pmol/109 cells). The intracellular half-life values of EFdA-TP and AZT-TP were ∼17 and ∼3 h, respectively. When MT-4 cells were cultured with 0.01 μM EFdA for 24 h, thoroughly washed to remove EFdA, further cultured without EFdA for various periods of time, exposed to HIV-1NL4-3, and cultured for an additional 5 days, the protection values were 75 and 47%, respectively, after 24 and 48 h with no drug incubation, while those with 1 μM AZT were 55 and 9.2%, respectively. The 50% inhibitory concentration values of EFdA-TP against human polymerases α, β, and γ were >100 μM, >100 μM, and 10 μM, respectively, while those of ddA-TP were >100 μM, 0.2 μM, and 0.2 μM, respectively. These data warrant further development of EFdA as a potential therapeutic agent for those patients who harbor wild-type HIV-1 and/or multidrug-resistant variants.


2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 1463-1469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Brown ◽  
Shaghayegh Moghaddam ◽  
Thomas Kawano ◽  
Cecilia Cheng-Mayer

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Nef protein has been shown to accelerate viral growth kinetics in primary human T-lymphocytes and macrophages; however, the specific function(s) of Nef responsible for this phenotype in macrophages is unknown. To address this issue, mutants of a molecularly cloned macrophage-tropic isolate, HIV-1SF162, were generated expressing single point mutations that abrogate the ability of Nef to interact with cellular kinases or mediate CD4 down-regulation. Infection of primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) with these mutant viruses revealed that residues in the PXXP motif contribute to efficient replication. Interestingly, viruses expressing alleles of Nef defective in CD4 down-modulation activity retain wild-type levels of infectivity in single-round assays but exhibited delayed replication kinetics and grew to lower titres compared to the wild-type virus in MDM. These data suggest that efficient HIV-1 replication is dependent on the ability of Nef to interact with cellular kinases and remove CD4 from the surface of infected macrophages.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document