Identification of a cellular protein interacting with murine retrovirus gag polyproteins

Abstract

The retroviral Gag polyprotein directs the assembly of virion particles and plays an important role in some events after entry into a host cell. The Gag polyprotein of a virus mixture is responsible for inducing murine acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (MAIDS) when injected into susceptible strains of mice. In order to identify the host cellular proteins which interact with the MAIDS virus Gag proteins and possibly mediate the function of the Gag proteins, mouse T-cell leukemic cDNA expression library was screened using the yeast GAL4 two hybrid system. Of 11 individual positive clones, the clone Y1 was selected for the study of protein-protein interaction. Its DNA sequence revealed that it was an exact match to the murine SH3 domain-containing protein SH3P8. It is expressed as 2.4 kbp transcripts in testis at higher levels and in various tissues tested at lower levels. Glutathione S-transferase-Y1 fusion protein binds tightly to Pr60def-gag as well as Pr 65eco-gag.