Retroviral matrix proteins interaction with membranes

Tomáš Kroupa1,2, Michal Doležal1,2, Jan Prchal2, Tomáš Ruml1, Richard Hrabal2

1Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Chemistry and Technology,

Technická 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic

2Laboratory of NMR Spectroscopy, University of Chemistry and Technology,

Technická 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic

tomas.kroupa@vscht.cz

 

Retroviruses are important mammalian pathogens. Despite an intensive research, some parts of the retroviral lifecycle remain unclear, for example interaction of the immature viral particles with plasma membrane of infected cells. Immature viral particles are formed by the main retroviral structural polyprotein Gag. N-terminal part of this polyprotein, i. e. matrix protein, is responsible for the interaction of the particles with plasma membrane and viral budding. In our work we compared matrix proteins from Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) and Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV). We studied the interaction of the matrix proteins with artificial liposomes consisted of commercially available phospholipids as well as liposomes formed by phospholipids isolated from cell lines which contained also retroviral envelope proteins. We managed to find differences among individual retroviruses which will be presented and discussed.