Mutational analysis of HIV-1 Gag proteins (Review)

The mature Gag proteins of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are major components of infectious virions, and thought to carry out numerous f unctions throughout the HIV-1 replication cycle. We have recently generated numerous gag gene mutants of HIV-1 to genetically study the functions of t he Gag proteins. Through the biological and biochemical analyses, our HIV-1 gag mutants have been grouped into early (defective for uncoating/reverse transcription), late (defective for virion release/maturation), and early/l ate (defective for both steps) mutants. Many mutants are found to efficient ly inhibit the replication of wild-type virus. Worthy of note, there are so me early mutants which show host cell-dependent replication potential.