Assembly-defective point mutants of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag precursor phenotypically expressed in recombinant baculovirus-infected cells.

Two substitution mutants of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gag gene product were isolated after nitrous acid mutagenesis of a recombinant baculovirus expressing a non-N-myristylated, p6-deleted Gag precursor (Pr49). Both mutants failed to assemble intracellular Gag virus-like particles, as does the parental recombinant, and therefore expressed a self-assembly defective (Sad) phenotype in insect cells. The mutations consisted of nonconservative changes involving highly conserved hydrophobic residues in the p24 domain, Leu to Pro at position 268 (L268P) and Leu to Ser at amino acid 322 (L322S). Experimental data suggested that the two mutated residues belonged to functionally different regions of the Gag precursor. (i) A partial complementation effect between the two mutants for Gag precursor assembly was observed in coinfection experiments. (ii) The two mutations showed different phenotypes when placed in the N-myristylated context, of which only the L268P mutation abolished extracellular budding and release of Gag particles at the plasma membrane. Both L268P and L322S mutants had a trans-dominant negative effect on the intracellular assembly of a non-N-myristylated, full-length (Pr55) Gag precursor expressed by a coinfecting recombinant. None of the mutants, however, showed any detectable effect in trans on membrane targeting and budding of the coexpressed N-myristylated wild-type Gag precursor.