A study was conducted to investigate the effects of increasing the amount o
f each retroviral component on vector production. It was found that, while
the components of both amphotropic and ecotropic vectors were expressed ind
ependently of each other in a transient transfection system, increasing the
amount of the gag/gag-pol component resulted in a decrease in virus titres
for the amphotropic particles but not ecotropic particles. Analyses of the
virus stocks produced indicated that the negative effect on titres was clo
sely linked to the availability of envelope proteins for virion incorporati
on. The negative effect was not observed for ecotropic particle production
in 293T cells, where the ecotropic receptor was absent, but was manifested
when production was conducted in 293/12 cells expressing the ecotropic rece
ptor. This suggested that the premature interaction between envelope and re
ceptor in producer cells could limit the amount of envelope available for v
irion incorporation. In designing optimal vector production systems it is e
ssential, therefore, to balance the concentration of the vector components
and to ensure that there is never an excess of Gag/Gag-Pol.