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Journal of Virology, August 1999, p. 7014-7020, Vol. 73, No. 8
McGill University AIDS Centre, Lady Davis
Institute-Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Québec, Canada
H3T 1E2,1 and Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A
2B42
Received 20 January 1999/Accepted 16 April 1999
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) genomic RNA segments at
nucleotide (nt) positions +240 to +274 are thought to form a stem-loop
secondary structure, termed SL1, that serves as a dimerization
initiation site for viral genomic RNA. We have generated two distinct
deletion mutations within this region, termed BH10-LD3 and BH10-LD4,
involving nt positions +238 to +253 and +261 to +274, respectively, and
have shown that each of these resulted in significant diminutions in
levels of viral infectiousness. However, long-term culture of each of
these viruses in MT-2 cells resulted in a restoration of
infectiousness, due to a series of compensatory point mutations within
four distinct proteins that are normally cleaved from the Gag
precursor. In the case of BH10-LD3, these four mutations were MA1, CA1,
MP2, and MNC, and they involved changes of amino acid Val-35 to Ile
within the matrix protein (MA), Ile-91 to Thr within the capsid (CA),
Thr-12 to Ile within p2, and Thr-24 to Ile within the nucleocapsid
(NC). The order in which these mutations were acquired by the mutated
BH10-LD3 was MNC > CA1 > MP2 > MA1. The results of
site-directed mutagenesis studies confirmed that each of these four
substitutions contributed to the increased viability of the mutated
BH10-LD3 viruses and that the MNC substitution, which was acquired
first, played the most important role in this regard. Three point
mutations, MP2, MNC, and MA2, were also shown to be sequentially
acquired by viruses that had emerged in culture from the BH10-LD4
deletion. The first two of these were identical to those described
above, while the last involved a change of Val-35 to Leu. All three of
these substitutions were necessary to restore the infectiousness of
mutated BH10-LD4 viruses to wild-type levels, although the MP2 mutation
alone, but neither of the other two substitutions, was able to confer some viability on BH10-LD4 viruses. Studies of viral RNA packaging showed that the BH10-LD4 deletion only marginally impaired
encapsidation while the BH10-LD3 deletion caused a severe deficit in
this regard.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Mutations within Four Distinct Gag Proteins Are
Required To Restore Replication of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 after Deletion Mutagenesis within the Dimerization Initiation
Site
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: McGill AIDS
Centre, Jewish General Hospital, 3755, chemin Côte-Ste-Catherine,
Montréal, Québec, Canada H3T 1E2. Phone: (514) 340-8307. Fax: (514) 340-7537. E-mail: mdwa{at}musica.mcgill.ca.
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