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Analysis Of Hiv-2 Vpx By Modeling And Insertional Mutagenesis, Lisa A. Mahnke, Michael Belshan, Lee Ratner

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Vpx facilitates HIV-2 nuclear localization by a poorly understood mechanism. We have compared Vpx to an NMR structure HIV- 1 Vpr in a central helical domain and probed regions of Vpx by insertional mutagenesis. A predicted loop between helices two and three appears to be unique, overlapping with a known novel nuclear localization signal. Overall, Vpx was found to be surprisingly flexible, tolerating a series of large insertions. We found that insertion within the polyproline-containing C-terminus destabilizes nuclear localization, whereas mutating a second helix in the central domain disrupts viral packaging. Other insertional mutants in the predicted loop and in …