Role of matrix protein in the type D retrovirus replication cycle: importance of the arginine residue at position 55.

We previously reported that a mutant of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), which has an amino acid substitution in the matrix (MA) protein at position 55, MA-R55W, showed altered viral morphogenesis, reduced glycoprotein incorporation, and loss of infectivity. In this report, we show that two additional amino acid substitutions at this site in MA, R55F and R55Y, also result in similar altered morphogenesis, Env incorporation, and infectivity, demonstrating that these changes are not specific for the substitution of tryptophan in place of arginine 55. Attempts to isolate second site infectious revertants from cells transfected with the R55W mutant genome resulted only in the recovery of infectious viruses in which the codon at position 55 had reverted to one encoding arginine. In contrast, no revertants were obtained from the phenylalanine and tyrosine mutants in which three nucleotide changes had been engineered into the arginine codon. These results confirm that the arginine residue at position 55 is critical for intracellular targeting of M-PMV Gag molecules and support the concept that as part of a cytoplasmic transport retention signal R55 interacts with cellular trafficking components rather than other regions of Gag. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.