Identification of dominant negative human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Vif mutants that interfere with the functional inactivation of APOBEC3G by virus-encoded Vif.

APOBEC3G (A3G) is a host cytidine deaminase that serves as a potent intrinsic inhibitor of retroviral replication. A3G is packaged into human immunodeficiency virus type 1 virions and deaminates deoxycytidine to deoxyuridine on nascent minus-strand retroviral cDNA, leading to hyper-deoxyguanine-to-deoxyadenine mutations on positive-strand cDNA and inhibition of viral replication. The antiviral activity of A3G is suppressed by Vif, a lentiviral accessory protein that prevents encapsidation of A3G. In this study, we identified dominant negative mutants of Vif that interfered with the ability of wild-type Vif to inhibit the encapsidation and antiviral activity of A3G. These mutants were nonfunctional due to mutations in the highly conserved HCCH and/or SOCS box motifs, which are required for assembly of a functional Cul5-E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. Similarly, mutation or deletion of a PPLP motif, which was previously reported to be important for Vif dimerization, induced a dominant negative phenotype. Expression of dominant negative Vif counteracted the Vif-induced reduction of intracellular A3G levels, presumably by preventing Vif-induced A3G degradation. Consequently, dominant negative Vif interfered with wild-type Vif's ability to exclude A3G from viral particles and reduced viral infectivity despite the presence of wild-type Vif. The identification of dominant negative mutants of Vif presents exciting possibilities for the design of novel antiviral strategies.