title: The highly conserved aspartic acid residue between hypervariable regions 1 and 2 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gp120 is important for early stages of virus replication.
abstract: Between hypervariable regions V1 and V2 of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 lies a cluster of relatively conserved residues. The contribution of nine charged residues in this region to virus infectivity was evaluated by single-amino-acid substitutions in an infectious provirus clone. Three of the HIV-1 mutants studied had slower growth kinetics than the wild-type virus. The delay was most pronounced in a mutant with an alanine substituted for an aspartic acid residue at position 180. This aspartic acid is conserved by all HIV-1 isolates with known nucleotide sequences. Substitutions with three other residues at this position, including a negatively charged glutamic acid, all affected virus infectivity. The defect identified in these mutants suggests that this aspartic acid residue is involved in the early stages of HIV-1 replication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Essex
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; D001224:Aspartic Acid