Murine leukemia virus p12 tethers the capsid-containing pre-integration complex to chromatin by binding directly to host nucleosomes in mitosis.

ABSTRACT: The murine leukaemia virus (MLV) Gag cleavage product, p12, is essential for both early and late steps in viral replication. The N-terminal domain of p12 binds directly to capsid (CA) and stabilises the mature viral core, whereas defects in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of p12 can be rescued by addition of heterologous chromatin binding sequences (CBSs). We and others hypothesised that p12 tethers the pre-integration complex (PIC) to host chromatin ready for integration. Using confocal microscopy, we have observed for the first time that CA localises to mitotic chromatin in infected cells in a p12-dependent manner. GST-tagged p12 alone, however, did not localise to chromatin and mass-spectrometry analysis of its interactions identified only proteins known to bind the p12 region of Gag. Surpr

SUBMITTER: Wanaguru M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6021111 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature