Derivation and Characterization of an inositol phosphate-independent HIV-1

A critical step in the HIV-1 replication cycle is the assembly of Gag proteins to form virions at the plasma membrane. Virion assembly and maturation is facilitated by the cellular polyanion inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), which is proposed to stabilize both the immature Gag lattice and the mature capsid lattice by binding to rings of primary amines at the center of Gag or capsid protein (CA) hexamers. The amino acids comprising these rings are critical for proper virion formation and their substitution results in assembly deficits or impaired infectiousness. To better understand the nature of the deficits that accompany IP6-deficiency, we passaged HIV-1 mutants that had substitutions in IP6-coordinating residues to select for compensatory mutations. We found a mutation, a threonine to isoleucine substitution at position 371 (T371I) in Gag, that restored replication competence to an IP6-binding-deficient HIV-1 mutant. Notably, unlike wild-type HIV-1, the assembly and infectiousness of resulting virus was not impaired when IP6 biosynthetic enzymes were genetically ablated. Surprisingly, we also found that the maturation inhibitor Bevirimat (BVM) could restore the assembly and replication of an IP6-binding deficient mutant. Moreover, using BVM-dependent mutants we were able to image the BVM-inducible assembly of individual HIV-1 particles assembly in living cells. Overall these results suggest that IP6-Gag and Gag-Gag contacts are finely tuned to generate a Gag lattice of optimal stability, and that under certain conditions BVM can functionally replace IP6. Author SummaryA key step in HIV-1 replication is the assembly of virions that are released from the infected cell. Previous work has suggested that a small molecule called IP6 is critical role in this process, promoting both HIV-1 assembly and the stability of mature fully infectious virions. Since IP6 is required for multiple steps in HIV-1 assembly and maturation, it is a candidate for the development of anti-retroviral therapies. Here, we identify an HIV-1 mutant that replicates independently of IP6, and show that a different small molecule can functionally substitute for IP6 under certain conditions. These findings suggest that IP6 regulates the stability of protein interactions during virion assembly and that the precise degree stability of these interactions is finely tuned and important for generating infectious virions. Finally, our work identifies an inducible virion assembly system that can be utilized to visualize HIV-1 assembly events using live cell microscopy.