Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:43:19 BST CiteULike: kieran101's library [249 articles] http://www.citeulike.org/user/kieran101/article/2789377 CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/kieran101/article/2789377 <i>Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol. 321, No. 3. (27 August 2004), pp. 566-573.</i><br /><br />The cytidine deaminase hAPOBEC3G is an antiviral human factor that counteracts the replication of HIV-1 in absence of the Vif protein. hAPOBEC3G is packaged into virus particles and lethally hypermutates HIV-1. In this work, we examine the mechanisms governing hAPOBEC3G packaging. By GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we show that hAPOBEC3G binds to HIV-1 Pr55 Gag and its NC domain and to the RT and IN domains contained in Pr160 Gag-Pol. We demonstrate that the expression of HIV-1 Gag is sufficient to induce the packaging of hAPOBEC3G into Gag particles. Gag-Pol polypeptides containing RT and IN domains, as well as HIV-1 genomic RNA, seem not to be necessary for hAPOBEC3G packaging. Lastly, we show that hAPOBEC3G and its murine ortholog are packaged into HIV-1 and MLV Gag particles. We conclude that the Gag polypeptides from distant retroviruses have conserved domains allowing the packaging of the host antiviral factor APOBEC3G. HIV-1 and MLV Gag proteins are sufficient to recruit APOBEC3G into virus-like particles Marc Douaisi Sylvie Dussart Marianne Courcoul Gilles Bessou Robert Vigne Etienne Decroly doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.07.005 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol. 321, No. 3. (27 August 2004), pp. 566-573. 2008-05-12T12:36:25-00:00 2004 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 321 3 566 573 apobec assembly