As full length Bk132 Env would not pseudotype on an NL43 HIV core we truncated
the cytoplasmic tail of the Envs [49], [50], and conducted tropism testing on NP2 cell lines expressing CD4 with either CCR5 or CXCR4.
The C - terminal end of
the cytoplasmic tail of gp41, measuring 105 amino acid residues, was tightly associated to the membrane and had three alpha - helixes with portions that were hydrophobic and portions that were hydrophilic.
One problem for Saad and his UAB colleagues came as they tried to express
the cytoplasmic tail of gp41 in growing E. coli cells.
Knowledge of this structure, called
the cytoplasmic tail of gp41 protein, will help researchers further understand how the virus infects human cells and how progeny viruses are assembled and released from infected cells.
They found that the N - terminal end of
the cytoplasmic tail of gp41, measuring 45 amino acid residues, lacked a regular secondary structure and was not associated with the membrane, which wraps around an HIV - 1 viral particle like the leather cover of a baseball.
Cytoplasmic tail of gp41 The structures of three membrane - associated cytoplasmic tails of gp41 are shown in red and orange, from this illustration of the trimeric spike structure.
Not exact matches
Even then, 70 percent
of the
cytoplasmic tail was cut and only 30 percent was left intact.
Saad says the structure opens up whole new areas
of research: How the
cytoplasmic tail stabilizes the envelope protein structure, how it affects membrane mobility
of the envelope protein structure, and how it helps coordinate membrane - binding and the association
of 2,000 HIV - 1 Gag polyproteins underneath the membrane surface.
Beads coated with Arp2 / 3 - activating proteins can induce two distinct types
of actin organization in
cytoplasmic extracts: (1) comet
tails or clouds displaying a dendritic array
of actin filaments and (2) stars with filament bundles radiating from the bead.