GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GAG PROTEINS OF ROUS-SARCOMAVIRUS

The yeast two-hybrid system was used to characterize homomeric interac tions between the Gag proteins of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV). The RSV Ga g precursor was found to interact strongly with itself and nut with va rious control proteins, The RSV Gag did not interact significantly wit h Gag proteins of a variety of other retroviruses, including murine le ukemia viruses and primate lentiviruses, Deletion analysis suggested t hat two nonoverlapping regions are independently sufficient to mediate RSV Gag-Gag dimerization. One such region lies near the N terminus an d contains p2, p10, and a large N-terminal part of the capsid (CA) dom ain; the other is localized in the C terminus and includes a small C-t erminal portion of CA and the nucleocapsid protein. These interaction domains may play roles in viral assembly.