Bastian Grewe

Influence of the viral proteins Rev and Gag on nuclear export, translation, and encapsidation of genomic HIV-1 RNA.

The full-length transcript of HIV-1 serves both as viral genome and as mRNA for the viral protein Gag. Gag packages the genomic RNA in viral particles generated by budding of Gag oligomers. Expression of Gag is regulated by the viral protein Rev. Rev binds to the full-length RNA and allows productive export out of the nucleus leading to efficient translation and packaging. Summarizing reported data Rev and Gag have similar features: (1) both interact with the full-length transcript; (2) both seem to be nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttle proteins. Therefore, we analyses the influence of Gag and Rev on nuclear export, translation, and encapsidation of the genomic RNA. Our results suggest that Gag did not influence export and translation. Since re-evaluation of the nuclear export activity of Gag did not confirm Gag as a nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttle protein, the simplest explanation would be that Gag cannot target the RNA in the nucleus. Rev on the other hand strongly influenced translation and encapsidation efficiency of the genomic transcript of proviral HIV constructs. Further analyses will identify cellular mechanisms that underlie these Rev-mediated effects.

1st supervisor: Prof. Dr. Klaus Überla
2nd supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Hengel

Institute: Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum Telephone: +49 (0)234 - 322 - 9277

E-mail: bastian.grewe@rub.de