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Journal of Virology, July 2000, p. 6198-6202, Vol. 74, No. 13
Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,1 Program
in Immunology,2 and Department of
Pathology,3 Harvard Medical School, Boston,
Massachusetts 02115
Received 4 January 2000/Accepted 30 March 2000
Mature human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) virions contain
a typically cone-shaped core that encases the viral genome. In this
study, we established conditions which allowed the efficient isolation
of morphologically intact HIV-1 cores from virions. The isolated cores
consisted mostly of cones which appeared uniformly capped at both ends
but were heterogeneous with respect to the shape of the broad cap as
well as the dimensions and angle of the cone. Vpr, a nonstructural
virion component implicated in the nuclear import of the viral genome,
was recovered in core preparations of HIV-1 and simian immunodeficiency
viruses from African green monkeys. Unexpectedly,
p6gag, a structural protein required for the
incorporation of Vpr, was absent from HIV-1 core preparations. Taken
together, our results indicate that the incorporation of Vpr into the
virion core is a conserved feature of primate lentiviruses and that the
interactions required for the uptake of Vpr into assembling particles
differ from those which confine Vpr within the core.
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Isolation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Cores: Retention of Vpr in the Absence of
p6gag
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617)
632-3067. Fax: (617) 632-3113. E-mail:
Heinrich_Gottlinger{at}DFCI.harvard.edu.
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