Biochemical and Functional Characterization of Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus Full-Length Pr77^Gag Expressed in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells.

ABSTRACT: The mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) Pr77^Gag polypeptide is an essential retroviral structural protein without which infectious viral particles cannot be formed. This process requires specific recognition and packaging of dimerized genomic RNA (gRNA) by Gag during virus assembly. Most of the previous work on retroviral assembly has used either the nucleocapsid portion of Gag, or other truncated Gag derivatives—not the natural substrate for virus assembly. In order to understand the molecular mechanism of MMTV gRNA packaging process, we expressed and purified full-length recombinant Pr77^Gag-His₆-tag fusion protein from soluble fractions of bacterial cultures. We show that the purified Pr77^Gag-His₆-tag protein retained the ability to assemble virus-like parti

SUBMITTER: Chameettachal A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6024702 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature