Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, November 1998, p. 9313-9317, Vol. 72, No. 11
Department of Cancer Immunology and AIDS,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Department of Pathology, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Received 8 May 1998/Accepted 17 July 1998
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particle assembly is directed
by the Gag polyprotein Pr55gag, the precursor
for the matrix (MA), capsid (CA), and nucleocapsid proteins of the
mature virion. We now show that CA sequences N terminal to the major
homology region (MHR), which form a distinct domain, are dispensable
for particle formation. However, slightly larger deletions which extend
into the MHR severely impair particle production. Remarkably, a
deletion which removed essentially all MA and CA sequences between the
N-terminal myristyl anchor and the MHR reduced the yield of
extracellular particles only moderately. Particle formation even
exceeded wild-type levels when additional MA sequences, either from the
N or the C terminus of the domain, were retained. We conclude that no
distinct region between the myristyl anchor and the MHR is required for
efficient particle assembly or release.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) morphogenesis is driven by the Gag precursor
Pr55gag, which can assemble into virus-like
particles even when expressed alone (11). Cleavage of
Pr55gag by the viral protease (PR) initiates the
maturation of the virus particle. PR and other viral enzymes, such as
reverse transcriptase (RT) and integrase (IN), are brought into the
virion as components of the Gag-Pol polyprotein, which results from
ribosomal frameshifting near the end of the gag gene into
the overlapping pol gene (16). The major
proteolytic processing products derived from
Pr55gag are matrix (MA), capsid (CA), and
nucleocapsid (NC), which are common to all retroviruses
(21). Additionally, Pr55gag yields a
peptide designated p6, which has no homolog in oncoretroviruses. In the
mature virion, MA forms a shell directly underneath the host
cell-derived lipid envelope, CA forms the core structure, and NC is
associated with the genomic RNA within the core (10).
Little is known about the interactions which govern the assembly of Gag
precursor molecules into spherical protein shells. In Rous sarcoma
virus (RSV), three distinct assembly domains have been defined which
together comprise no more than 25% of the Gag precursor
(4). Interestingly, despite its prominent structural role in
the mature virion, RSV CA was not required for efficient particle
assembly (3, 32, 33). In the case of HIV-1, the covalent
attachment of myristic acid to the N terminus of the MA domain is
required for Gag membrane binding and particle formation (2,
14). Furthermore, genetic analyses indicate that the major
homology region (MHR), a uniquely conserved region within CA, forms the
N terminus of an assembly domain which comprises the C-terminal third
of CA and extends into the p2 peptide that separates CA from NC
(1, 5, 17, 19). While deletions N terminal to the MHR had
little or no effect on viral particle production (5, 22, 23,
30), numerous mutations within the C-terminal third of HIV-1 CA
severely impaired virus assembly (5, 7, 19, 20, 23, 28).
Interestingly, recent structural studies have shown that the
functionally distinct regions of CA form independently folding domains
which are connected via a hinge region just proximal to the MHR
(9, 12). In the present study, we demonstrate that the
entire N-terminal domain of CA is dispensable for particle formation.
However, particle release was dramatically reduced by deletions which
extended into the MHR. In marked contrast, efficient production of
particles of normal density was observed even when about 50% of
Pr55gag between the myristylation signal and the
MHR was deleted.
The N-terminal domain of HIV-1 CA is dispensable for particle
production.
We reported previously that CA mutants with small
deletions N terminal to the MHR retain the ability to form viral
particles with wild-type efficiency (5). Furthermore, Wang
and Barklis (30) showed that a mutant with a 56-amino-acid
deletion in the N-terminal half of HIV-1 CA can assemble particles
efficiently. Taken together, these results suggested that CA sequences
proximal to the MHR may be dispensable for particle production. To
explore this possibility, we used site-directed mutagenesis as
described previously (14) to generate the
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The C-Terminal Half of the Human Immunodeficiency
Virus Type 1 Gag Precursor Is Sufficient for Efficient Particle
Assembly
![]()
ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Text
References
![]()
TEXT
Top
Abstract
Text
References
126-277 mutant
proviral clone (Fig. 1), which encodes a
Gag polyprotein that lacks the entire N-terminal CA domain. Of note,
the
126-277 deletion, which also removed seven residues from the C
terminus of MA, preserved the C-terminal domain of CA, including the
MHR.

View larger version (43K):
[in a new window]
FIG. 1.
Schematic representation of Gag deletion mutants. The
domain structure of the Gag polyprotein and the position of the MHR
within the CA domain are indicated. Numbers refer to the positions of
the deleted amino acids relative to the initiating methionine.
126-277 mutant expressed a
shortened Gag precursor with an electrophoretic mobility slightly
faster than that of p41, a wild-type Gag cleavage intermediate.
Immunorecognition of the Gag polyprotein by patient sera is frequently
impaired even by minor alterations (6), which may explain
why only relatively small amounts of the
126-277 Gag precursor were
detected. The mutant also produced a prominent Gag species which
migrated close to authentic CA, as expected for a fusion protein
consisting of MA joined to the C-terminal domain of CA. A slightly more
slowly migrating species presumably represented a form of the fusion protein which had p2 joined to its C terminus. An equivalent form of CA
is found in cells transfected with the wild-type construct (Fig. 2A,
lane 1).
|
126-277 mutant to produce
extracellular particles, virions released during the labeling period were pelleted through 20% sucrose and their protein composition was
directly analyzed by SDS-PAGE. As shown in Fig. 2B, cells transfected
with the
126-277 mutant released wild-type amounts of pelletable
gag- and pol-encoded products such as NC, RT, and IN. While authentic CA has 11 methionine residues, the MA-CA fusion protein in
126-277 virions was expected to contain only 3, explaining why the CA band in wild-type virions appeared more
prominent. MA and p6 were not detected, because these products lack
methionine residues. We conclude that deleting the entire N-terminal
domain of CA was without effect on viral particle yield or Gag-Pol
incorporation.
The MHR is required for efficient particle production.
Two
additional mutants were generated by site directed-mutagenesis to
determine whether deletions into the MHR would affect assembly. Both
mutants lack the N-terminal CA domain and the interdomain connector
region of CA; however, while the
126-285 mutant retains 19 of the 20 amino acids of the MHR, the
126-304 mutant lacks all of the MHR
(Fig. 1). HeLa cells transfected with these constructs contained
relatively high levels of the expected shortened Gag precursor
molecules (Fig. 2A), suggesting that the mutant polyproteins were
inefficiently exported and/or processed. Furthermore, cells transfected
with each mutant contained a prominent Gag species that migrated at the
position expected for a fusion protein consisting of MA and the
remainder of the CA domain.
126-285 deletion reduced the yield of viral
particles by at least 10-fold (lanes 3 and 4) and the
126-304
deletion practically prevented particle formation (lanes 5 and 6).
Interestingly, the few particles that were released essentially lacked
NC or the MA-CA fusion proteins that were prominent in the
cell-associated fractions. Instead, the pelleted material contained
unprocessed or incompletely processed Gag products. The latter migrated
as two closely spaced bands which presumably represented forms of the
mutant Gag precursors that lacked the C-terminal p6 domain or p6 plus
the p1 interdomain peptide. Relative to the levels detected in the
transfected cells, these Gag processing intermediates appeared
selectively enriched in the particulate fractions. Moreover, these
products were the only Gag proteins released by cells transfected with
the
126-304 mutant (Fig. 2B, lanes 5 and 6). We also examined the
effects of the deletions in CA after mutational inactivation of PR.
Again, the
126-277 deletion was without effect on viral particle
yields, while the
126-285 deletion significantly reduced and the
126-304 deletion essentially blocked particle production (data not
shown). We infer that the defects in particle production caused by the
126-285 and
126-304 deletions were not secondary to a
dysregulation of PR.
Efficient particle formation in the absence of both MA and the
N-terminal CA domain.
Efficient HIV-1 particle formation requires
the N-terminal myristylation signal of MA (2, 14) but not
its globular core domain (18, 24, 31). On the other hand, it
has been reported that the MA protein of a simian immunodeficiency
virus can form virus-like particles on its own (13),
indicating that MA has the potential to contribute to the
self-association of Gag precursor molecules. We therefore examined
whether a role of MA in particle formation would become more apparent
in the absence of the N-terminal domain of CA. To this end, we
generated the
8-277 mutant, which retains a functional myristylation
signal (24) but otherwise lacks MA sequences as well as the
N-terminal domain of CA (Fig. 1). Additionally, we generated the
55-277 mutant (Fig. 1), which retains N-terminal MA sequences beyond
the myristylation signal, including a conserved basic cluster that has
been implicated in Gag membrane binding (34). A third MA-CA
deletion mutant (
8-87/
126-277) retained sequences from the C
rather than from the N terminus of MA (Fig. 1).
8-277 mutant yielded a small amount of a 26-kDa product, the
expected size of the mutant Gag polyprotein, as well as more prominent
bands of about 6 and 7 kDa (Fig. 3A, lane
3). Because the patient serum used
recognizes CA but not NC, the latter two bands presumably represented
the mutant CA products expected from cleavage at the CA-p2 and p2-NC
sites. Remarkably, significant amounts of Gag cleavage products of
approximately 6 and 7 kDa were released into the supernatant and could
be pelleted through 20% sucrose (Fig. 3B, lane 3). The pelleted
material also contained a small quantity of the mutant Gag precursor,
as well as IN and RT in amounts that were only modestly lower than
those in wild-type particle preparations. Measurement of
particle-associated RT activity released into the supernatant, as well
as an analysis of particles released in the absence of active PR,
confirmed that the
8-277 deletion did not affect Gag-Pol
incorporation and only moderately reduced particle yields (data not
shown).
|
55-277 and
8-87/
126-277
constructs expressed wild-type amounts of envelope glycoprotein, little
Gag protein was detected in the cell-associated fractions by the
patient serum used, particularly in the case of the
55-277 mutant
(Fig. 3A). However, Gag clearly was efficiently expressed, because the
transfected cells produced large amounts of extracellular particles
(Fig. 3B). These particles contained the MA-CA fusion products expected
from cleavage at the CA-p2 and p2-NC sites. Cleavage at the CA-p2 site
appeared inefficient for the
55-277 mutant but was only moderately
impaired in the case of the
8-87/
126-277 mutant. As judged from
the relative amounts of pelletable RT, IN, and NC released into the
medium, both mutants efficiently incorporated the Gag-Pol precursor and
produced two- to threefold more particles than cells expressing the
parental proviral construct (Fig. 3B).
Characterization of mutant particles.
Pelleted particles
formed by the
8-277,
55-277,
126-277, or wild-type Gag
precursor were pooled and layered on top of a preformed 20 to 60%
sucrose gradient. Particles lacking active PR were used, because the
wild-type and mutant Gag precursor molecules could be readily
distinguished by SDS-PAGE. Following centrifugation at 40,000 rpm in an
SW41 rotor for 16 h at 4°C, the gradient was fractionated into
aliquots of equal size. Viral proteins were then immunoprecipitated
from each fraction and separated by SDS-PAGE. Interestingly, particles
formed by wild-type Pr55gag and by each of the
mutant Gag precursors banded at a similar density (data not shown). We
conclude that deleting up to 50% of the HIV-1 gag coding
sequence had at most a minor effect on particle density.
126-277 or the
8-277 mutant contained enveloped, roughly spherical extracellular particles which often resembled wild-type HIV-1 virions but always lacked a conical core
(Fig. 4). Instead, a circular core
structure was frequently visible. Furthermore, while wild-type
particles ranged in diameter from 95 to 160 nm (n = 30), the mutant particles were more heterogeneous in size, with
126-277 particles varying between 80 and 310 nm and
8-277
particles between 90 and 250 nm.
|
-helical regions in the globular core of MA can
dramatically increase overall membrane binding, presumably because the
myristyl group can no longer be sequestered.
It has been reported that even single amino acid substitutions in the
N-terminal CA domain can reduce viral particle formation up to 20-fold
(29). On the other hand, an earlier report showed that a
56-amino-acid deletion in the N-terminal half of CA had no effect on
the efficiency of particle production (30). These results
indicate that an incorrectly folded N-terminal CA domain can be more
disruptive than the lack of a significant portion of the domain. This
view is supported by the present study, which clearly shows that the
entire N-terminal domain of CA is dispensable for particle assembly.
The role of the MHR in HIV-1 particle formation has been subject to
controversy. We previously showed that small deletions (5)
and even conservative single amino acid substitutions (19) in the MHR can severely impair HIV-1 particle production. Analogous results were obtained for Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (27). On the other hand, Srinivasakumar et al. (26) reported that an in-frame deletion which precisely removed the HIV-1 MHR had only a
minor effect on particle formation. Furthermore, even deletions which
essentially removed the entire C-terminal CA domain appeared to have
only relatively small effects on particle budding and release
(26). It seems possible that an assembly defect was mitigated by the overexpression system used, because several other groups have found that HIV-1 particle formation is highly sensitive to
changes in the C-terminal domain of CA (5, 19, 20, 23, 28).
In the present study, the lack of a requirement for the N-terminal
domain of CA contrasted sharply with the effects of deletions that
extended into the MHR, attesting to the importance of this region for
HIV-1 particle assembly.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
A.B. was supported by a fellowship from the Istituto Superiore di Sanitá (Rome, Italy). Å.Ö. was supported by a fellowship from the Swedish Medical Research Council. This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants AI29873 and AI28691 (Center for AIDS Research) and by a gift from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* 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.
| |
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1. |
Accola, M. A.,
S. Höglund, and H. G. Göttlinger.
1998.
A putative -helical structure which overlaps the capsid-p2 boundary in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag precursor is crucial for viral particle assembly.
J. Virol.
72:2072-2078 |
| 2. |
Bryant, M., and L. Ratner.
1990.
Myristoylation-dependent replication and assembly of human immunodeficiency virus 1.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
87:523-527 |
| 3. | Craven, R. C., A. E. Leure-duPree, R. A. Weldon, and J. W. Wills. 1995. Genetic analysis of the major homology region of the Rous sarcoma virus Gag protein. J. Virol. 69:4213-4227[Abstract]. |
| 4. | Craven, R. C., and L. J. Parent. 1996. Dynamic interactions of the Gag polyprotein. Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 214:65-94[Medline]. |
| 5. |
Dorfman, T.,
A. Bukovsky,
A. Öhagen,
S. Höglund, and H. G. Göttlinger.
1994.
Functional domains of the capsid protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
J. Virol.
68:8180-8187 |
| 6. |
Dorfman, T.,
F. Mammano,
W. A. Haseltine, and H. G. Göttlinger.
1994.
Role of the matrix protein in the virion association of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope glycoprotein.
J. Virol.
68:1689-1696 |
| 7. | Ebbets-Reed, D., S. Scarlata, and C. A. Carter. 1996. The major homology region of the HIV-1 gag precursor influences membrane affinity. Biochemistry 35:14268-14275[Medline]. |
| 8. | Fuller, S. D., T. Wilk, B. E. Gowen, H.-G. Kräusslich, and V. M. Vogt. 1997. Cryoelectron microscopy reveals ordered domains in the immature HIV-1 particle. Curr. Biol. 7:729-738[Medline]. |
| 9. |
Gamble, T. R.,
S. Yoo,
F. F. Vajdos,
U. K. von Schwedler,
D. K. Worthylake,
H. Wang,
J. P. McCutcheon,
W. I. Sundquist, and C. P. Hill.
1997.
Structure of the carboxy-terminal dimerization domain of the HIV-1 capsid protein.
Science
278:849-853 |
| 10. | Gelderblom, H. R. 1991. Assembly and morphology of HIV: potential effect of structure on viral function. AIDS 5:617-638[Medline]. |
| 11. | Gheysen, D., E. Jacobs, F. de Foresta, C. Thiriart, M. Francotte, D. Thines, and M. De Wilde. 1989. Assembly and release of HIV-1 precursor Pr55gag virus-like particles from recombinant baculovirus-infected insect cells. Cell 59:103-112[Medline]. |
| 12. | Gitti, R. K., B. M. Lee, J. Walker, M. F. Summers, S. Yoo, and W. I. Sundquist. 1996. Structure of the amino-terminal core domain of the HIV-1 capsid protein. Science 273:231-235[Abstract]. |
| 13. | González, S. A., J. L. Affranchino, H. R. Gelderblom, and A. Burny. 1993. Assembly of the matrix protein of simian immunodeficiency virus into virus-like particles. Virology 194:548-556[Medline]. |
| 14. |
Göttlinger, H. G.,
J. G. Sodroski, and W. A. Haseltine.
1989.
Role of capsid precursor processing and myristoylation in morphogenesis and infectivity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
86:5781-5785 |
| 15. |
Hill, C. P.,
D. Worthylake,
D. P. Bancroft,
A. M. Christensen, and W. I. Sundquist.
1996.
Crystal structures of the trimeric human immunodeficiency virus type 1 matrix protein: implications for membrane association and assembly.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
93:3099-3104 |
| 16. | Hunter, E. 1994. Macromolecular interactions in the assembly of HIV and other retroviruses. Semin. Virol. 5:71-83. |
| 17. | Kräusslich, H.-G., M. Fäcke, A.-M. Heuser, J. Konvalinka, and H. Zentgraf. 1995. The spacer peptide between human immunodeficiency virus capsid and nucleocapsid proteins is essential for ordered assembly and viral infectivity. J. Virol. 69:3407-3419[Abstract]. |
| 18. |
Lee, P. P., and M. L. Linial.
1994.
Efficient particle formation can occur if the matrix domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag is substituted by a myristylation signal.
J. Virol.
68:6644-6654 |
| 19. |
Mammano, F.,
Å. Öhagen,
S. Höglund, and H. G. Göttlinger.
1994.
Role of the major homology region of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in virion morphogenesis.
J. Virol.
68:4927-4936 |
| 20. |
McDermott, J.,
L. Farrel,
R. Ross, and E. Barklis.
1996.
Structural analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag protein interactions, using cysteine-specific reagents.
J. Virol.
70:5106-5114 |
| 21. |
Mervis, R. J.,
N. Ahmad,
E. P. Lillehoj,
M. G. Raum,
F. H. R. Salazar,
H. W. Chan, and S. Venkatesan.
1988.
The gag gene products of human immunodeficiency virus type 1: alignment with the gag open reading frame, identification of posttranslational modifications, and evidence for alternative gag precursors.
J. Virol.
62:3993-4002 |
| 22. | Reicin, A. S., A. Öhagen, L. Yin, S. Höglund, and S. P. Goff. 1996. The role of Gag in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 virion morphogenesis and early steps of the viral life cycle. J. Virol. 70:8645-8652[Abstract]. |
| 23. | Reicin, A. S., S. Paik, R. D. Berkowitz, J. Luban, I. Lowy, and S. P. Goff. 1995. Linker insertion mutations in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gag gene: effects on virion particle assembly, release, and infectivity. J. Virol. 69:642-650[Abstract]. |
| 24. | Reil, H., A. A. Bukovsky, H. R. Gelderblom, and H. G. Göttlinger. 1998. Efficient HIV-1 replication can occur in the absence of the viral matrix protein. EMBO J. 17:2699-2708[Medline]. |
| 25. | Spearman, P., R. Horton, L. Ratner, and I. Kuli-Zade. 1997. Membrane binding of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 matrix protein in vivo supports a conformational myristyl switch mechanism. J. Virol. 71:6582-6592[Abstract]. |
| 26. | Srinivasakumar, N., M.-L. Hammarskjöld, and D. Rekosh. 1995. Characterization of deletion mutations in the capsid region of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 that affect particle formation and Gag-Pol precursor incorporation. J. Virol. 69:6106-6114[Abstract]. |
| 27. |
Strambio-de-Castillia, K., and E. Hunter.
1992.
Mutational analysis of the major homology region of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus by use of saturation mutagenesis.
J. Virol.
66:7021-7032 |
| 28. | von Poblotzki, A., R. Wagner, M. Niedrig, G. Wanner, H. Wolf, and S. Modrow. 1993. Identification of a region in the Pr55gag-polyprotein essential for HIV-1 particle formation. Virology 193:981-985[Medline]. |
| 29. | von Schwedler, U. K., T. L. Stemmler, V. Y. Klishko, S. Li, K. A. Albertine, D. R. Davis, and W. I. Sundquist. 1998. Proteolytic refolding of the HIV-1 capsid protein amino-terminus facilitates viral core assembly. EMBO J. 17:1555-1568[Medline]. |
| 30. |
Wang, C.-T., and E. Barklis.
1993.
Assembly, processing, and infectivity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag mutants.
J. Virol.
67:4264-4273 |
| 31. |
Wang, C.-T.,
Y. Zhang,
J. McDermott, and E. Barklis.
1993.
Conditional infectivity of a human immunodeficiency virus matrix domain deletion mutant.
J. Virol.
67:7067-7076 |
| 32. |
Weldon, R. A., and J. W. Wills.
1993.
Characterization of a small (25-kilodalton) derivative of the Rous sarcoma virus Gag protein competent for particle release.
J. Virol.
67:5550-5561 |
| 33. | Wills, J. W., and R. C. Craven. 1991. Form, function, and use of retroviral Gag proteins. AIDS 5:639-654[Medline]. |
| 34. |
Zhou, W.,
L. J. Parent,
J. W. Wills, and M. D. Resh.
1994.
Identification of a membrane-binding domain within the amino-terminal region of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag protein which interacts with acidic phospholipids.
J. Virol.
68:2556-2569 |
| 35. | Zhou, W., and M. D. Resh. 1996. Differential membrane binding of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 matrix protein. J. Virol. 70:8540-8548[Abstract]. |
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| J. Bacteriol. | Mol. Cell. Biol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. |
|---|
| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
|---|