Distribution and three-dimensional structure of AIDS virus envelope spikes

Ping Zhu, Jun Liu, Julian Bess, Elena Chertova, Jeffrey D. Lifson, Henry Grisé, Gilad A. Ofek, Kenneth A. Taylor and Kenneth H. Roux ()
Additional contact information
Ping Zhu: Florida State University
Jun Liu: Florida State University
Julian Bess: AIDS Vaccine Program, SAIC Frederick Inc, National Cancer Institute at Frederick
Elena Chertova: AIDS Vaccine Program, SAIC Frederick Inc, National Cancer Institute at Frederick
Jeffrey D. Lifson: AIDS Vaccine Program, SAIC Frederick Inc, National Cancer Institute at Frederick
Henry Grisé: Florida State University
Gilad A. Ofek: Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Kenneth A. Taylor: Florida State University
Kenneth H. Roux: Florida State University

Nature, 2006, vol. 441, issue 7095, 847-852

Abstract: Abstract Envelope glycoprotein (Env) spikes on AIDS retroviruses initiate infection of host cells and are therefore targets for vaccine development. Though crystal structures for partial Env subunits are known, the structure and distribution of native Env spikes on virions is obscure. We applied cryoelectron microscopy tomography to define ultrastructural details of spikes. Virions of wild-type human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and a mutant simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) had ∼14 and ∼73 spikes per particle, respectively, with some clustering of HIV-1 spikes. Three-dimensional averaging showed that the surface glycoprotein (gp120) ‘head’ of each subunit of the trimeric SIV spike contains a primary mass, with two secondary lobes. The transmembrane glycoprotein ‘stalk’ of each trimer is composed of three independent legs that project obliquely from the trimer head, tripod-like. Reconciling available atomic structures with the three-dimensional whole spike density map yields insights into the orientation of Env spike structural elements and possible structural bases of their functions.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04817 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7095:d:10.1038_nature04817

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04817

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().