Unchain my heart, baby let me go--the entry and intracellular transport of HIV

Abstract

In this issue, McDonald et al. describe the itinerary of the incoming human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during its travels to the host nucleus. They show that subviral particles tagged with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) are propelled along microtubules (MTs) by minus-end-directed and presumably plus-end-directed MT motors. The tracked particles correspond to functional units, since they no longer include a viral envelope, but do include viral matrix protein, Vpr, capsid protein, and reverse transcription activity.

Figure 1.

Schematic description of the cell entry and uncoating of HIV. HIV enters cells by fusion of its envelope (green) with the plasma membrane (1). The viral core (orange) and associated proteins are released into the cytosol. The viral RNA genome is reverse transcribed into DNA. The reverse transcription complex (red) is propelled along microtubules by dynein toward the microtubule minus-end–localized close to the cell nucleus (4). DNA and associated proteins are imported into the nucleus (5), where the viral genome is integrated into a host chromosome (modified from Sodeik, 2000; Whittaker et al., 2000).