<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD with MathML3 v1.2 20190208//EN"  "JATS-archivearticle1-mathml3.dtd"><article xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.2"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">elife</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">eLife</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>eLife</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn publication-format="electronic" pub-type="epub">2050-084X</issn><publisher><publisher-name>eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">83548</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.83548</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="display-channel"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Microbiology and Infectious Disease</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Initiation of HIV-1 Gag lattice assembly is required for recognition of the viral genome packaging signal</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" id="author-294389"><name><surname>Lei</surname><given-names>Xiao</given-names></name><contrib-id authenticated="true" contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8641-7824</contrib-id><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref><xref ref-type="other" rid="fund3"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="con1"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="conf1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" id="author-294390"><name><surname>Gonçalves-Carneiro</surname><given-names>Daniel</given-names></name><contrib-id authenticated="true" contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9333-1540</contrib-id><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="con2"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="conf1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" id="author-107167"><name><surname>Zang</surname><given-names>Trinity M</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">2</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="con3"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="conf2"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes" id="author-193061"><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>Paul D</given-names></name><contrib-id authenticated="true" contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2368-3719</contrib-id><email>pbieniasz@rockefeller.edu</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">1</xref><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">2</xref><xref ref-type="other" rid="fund1"/><xref ref-type="other" rid="fund2"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="con4"/><xref ref-type="fn" rid="conf1"/></contrib><aff id="aff1"><label>1</label><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/0420db125</institution-id><institution>Laboratory of Retrovirology, Rockefeller University</institution></institution-wrap><addr-line><named-content content-type="city">New York</named-content></addr-line><country>United States</country></aff><aff id="aff2"><label>2</label><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/006w34k90</institution-id><institution>Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University</institution></institution-wrap><addr-line><named-content content-type="city">New York, New York</named-content></addr-line><country>United States</country></aff></contrib-group><contrib-group content-type="section"><contrib contrib-type="editor"><name><surname>Gao</surname><given-names>Guangxia</given-names></name><role>Reviewing Editor</role><aff><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/01tyv8576</institution-id><institution>Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences</institution></institution-wrap><country>China</country></aff></contrib><contrib contrib-type="senior_editor"><name><surname>Sawyer</surname><given-names>Sara L</given-names></name><role>Senior Editor</role><aff><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/02ttsq026</institution-id><institution>University of Colorado Boulder</institution></institution-wrap><country>United States</country></aff></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date publication-format="electronic" date-type="publication"><day>23</day><month>01</month><year>2023</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="collection"><year>2023</year></pub-date><volume>12</volume><elocation-id>e83548</elocation-id><history><date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2022-09-18"><day>18</day><month>09</month><year>2022</year></date><date date-type="accepted" iso-8601-date="2023-01-20"><day>20</day><month>01</month><year>2023</year></date></history><pub-history><event><event-desc>This manuscript was published as a preprint at .</event-desc><date date-type="preprint" iso-8601-date="2022-10-10"><day>10</day><month>10</month><year>2022</year></date><self-uri content-type="preprint" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.06.511082"/></event></pub-history><permissions><copyright-statement>© 2023, Lei et al</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2023</copyright-year><copyright-holder>Lei et al</copyright-holder><ali:free_to_read/><license xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><ali:license_ref>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ali:license_ref><license-p>This article is distributed under the terms of the <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution License</ext-link>, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.</license-p></license></permissions><self-uri content-type="pdf" xlink:href="elife-83548-v2.pdf"/><self-uri content-type="figures-pdf" xlink:href="elife-83548-figures-v2.pdf"/><abstract><p>The encapsidation of HIV-1 gRNA into virions is enabled by the binding of the nucleocapsid (NC) domain of the HIV-1 Gag polyprotein to the structured viral RNA packaging signal (Ψ) at the 5’ end of the viral genome. However, the subcellular location and oligomeric status of Gag during the initial Gag-Ψ encounter remain uncertain. Domains other than NC, such as capsid (CA), may therefore indirectly affect RNA recognition. To investigate the contribution of Gag domains to Ψ recognition in a cellular environment, we performed protein-protein crosslinking and protein-RNA crosslinking immunoprecipitation coupled with sequencing (CLIP-seq) experiments. We demonstrate that NC alone does not bind specifically to Ψ in living cells, whereas full-length Gag and a CANC subdomain bind to Ψ with high specificity. Perturbation of the Ψ RNA structure or NC zinc fingers affected CANC:Ψ binding specificity. Notably, CANC variants with substitutions that disrupt CA:CA dimer, trimer, or hexamer interfaces in the immature Gag lattice also affected RNA binding, and mutants that were unable to assemble a nascent Gag lattice were unable to specifically bind to Ψ. Artificially multimerized NC domains did not specifically bind Ψ. CA variants with substitutions in inositol phosphate coordinating residues that prevent CA hexamerization were also deficient in Ψ binding and second-site revertant mutants that restored CA assembly also restored specific binding to Ψ. Overall, these data indicate that the correct assembly of a nascent immature CA lattice is required for the specific interaction between Gag and Ψ in cells.</p></abstract><kwd-group kwd-group-type="author-keywords"><kwd>HIV-1</kwd><kwd>RNA</kwd><kwd>capsid</kwd><kwd>nucelocapsid</kwd><kwd>packaging</kwd></kwd-group><kwd-group kwd-group-type="research-organism"><title>Research organism</title><kwd>Viruses</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group><award-group id="fund1"><funding-source><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="FundRef">http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000060</institution-id><institution>National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</institution></institution-wrap></funding-source><award-id>U54 AI170660</award-id><principal-award-recipient><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>Paul D</given-names></name></principal-award-recipient></award-group><award-group id="fund2"><funding-source><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="FundRef">http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000060</institution-id><institution>National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</institution></institution-wrap></funding-source><award-id>R01AI50111</award-id><principal-award-recipient><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>Paul D</given-names></name></principal-award-recipient></award-group><award-group id="fund3"><funding-source><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="FundRef">http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100012007</institution-id><institution>Rockefeller University</institution></institution-wrap></funding-source><principal-award-recipient><name><surname>Lei</surname><given-names>Xiao</given-names></name></principal-award-recipient></award-group><funding-statement>The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.</funding-statement></funding-group><custom-meta-group><custom-meta specific-use="meta-only"><meta-name>Author impact statement</meta-name><meta-value>Initiation of the assembly of HIV-1 particles in infected cells is required to form a subviral structure that recognizes the viral RNA genome for packaging.</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-group></article-meta></front><body><sec id="s1" sec-type="intro"><title>Introduction</title><p>The generation of infectious HIV-1 virions depends on the encapsidation of two copies of HIV-1 gRNA into virions. HIV-1 gRNA is present among a vast excess of host RNAs in the cytosol of infected cells, yet it is the dominant RNA species in virions (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib54">Rulli et al., 2007</xref>). The specific encapsidation of HIV-1 gRNA into virions is attributed to the specific interaction between HIV-1 Gag and the viral packaging signal ‘Ψ’ (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib3">Aldovini and Young, 1990</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib5">Berkowitz et al., 1996</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib9">Clavel and Orenstein, 1990</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib10">Clever et al., 1995</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib11">Clever et al., 2000</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib13">Darlix et al., 1990</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib21">D’Souza and Summers, 2005</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib41">Lever et al., 1989</xref>). The Gag protein consists of three major domains: matrix (MA), capsid (CA), and nucleocapsid (NC). The NC domain binds directly to RNA, and point mutations or deletions disrupting the zinc fingers of NC interfere with the specific packaging of gRNA (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib3">Aldovini and Young, 1990</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib27">Gorelick et al., 1990</xref>). Nevertheless, since the NC domain is present in the context of Gag precursor when initiating interactions with Ψ, other domains of Gag may also contribute to Ψ binding specificity. Indeed, RNase protection assays, yeast-three hybrid assays, and in vitro binding assays suggest that full-length Gag or CANC has different RNA binding specificity compared to NC, and some studies indicate binding to Ψ with higher specificity than NC (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib4">Bacharach and Goff, 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib12">Damgaard et al., 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib29">Guo et al., 2020</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib37">Kroupa et al., 2020</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib63">Webb et al., 2013</xref>). Moreover, Gag mutants with CA mutations exhibited reduced gRNA selectivity in an in vitro reconstituted HIV-1 Ψ packaging system (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib8">Carlson et al., 2016</xref>), while Gag mutants with CA assembly deficits cannot initiate gRNA packaging (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib23">Duchon et al., 2021</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib38">Kutluay and Bieniasz, 2010</xref>).</p><p>Nevertheless, there remains significant uncertainty as to the location, stoichiometry, and the overall nature of the protein RNA complex that initiates HIV-1 assembly. To probe the potential role of CA and early assembly events in the specific interaction between Gag and Ψ in biologically relevant settings, we performed crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) experiments to determine whether full-length Gag, a CANC subdomain, or NC alone could specifically bind to Ψ within HIV-1 gRNA in cells. We found that full-length Gag and CANC both bind to Ψ with high specificity in the cytosol, whereas an isolated NC domain does not. Through further studies of CA mutants, we demonstrate that manipulations which perturb any of the CA:CA interfaces required for the formation of an immature Gag lattice also perturb the specific interaction between Gag/CANC and Ψ. Our findings suggest that assembly of a nascent immature Gag lattice is required for the initial recognition of Ψ and the initiation of viral RNA packaging in the infected cell cytoplasm.</p></sec><sec id="s2" sec-type="results"><title>Results</title><sec id="s2-1"><title>CLIP method for assessing Gag-RNA interaction in cells</title><p>We used a modified CLIP method based on published protocols (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib56">Shema Mugisha et al., 2020</xref>) to measure HIV-1 Gag-RNA binding interactions in living cells. In this CLIP procedure, an infrared-dye-conjugated 3’ adaptor (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib65">Zarnegar et al., 2016</xref>) is used in place of a conventional radioactive labeled 3’ adaptor. Protein-RNA crosslinking is driven by metabolic 4-thiouridine incorporation into target RNA (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib30">Hafner et al., 2010</xref>), and the labeled adaptor is ligated to protein/RNA crosslinked species directly on antibody-conjugated Dynabeads (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1s1">Figure 1—figure supplement 1</xref>). These methodological adjustments cut the experimental time by half without loss of sensitivity, enabling higher throughput in CLIP assays.</p><p>For CLIP experiments, we used derivatives of an HIV-1 NL4-3 based proviral construct, referred to as HIV-1 NL4-3 (MA-3xHA/PR<sup>−</sup>) that carries a 3xHA epitope tag, between the MA and CA domains of Gag and encodes an inactivated protease (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>; <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1A</xref>). As we intended to study the initial Gag:gRNA interaction in the cytosol and MA is not involved in this process (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib7">Bou-Nader et al., 2021</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>), we also generated a proviral construct (referred to as pCANC) in which the start codon of MA (ATG) was mutated to abolish MA expression; instead, an N-terminally 3xHA CANC Gag fragment, along with the C-terminal SP2-p6 extension is expressed (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1A</xref>). Crucially, the RNA binding profile of the CANC protein to the HIV-1 genome was similar to that of the full-length Gag protein, with a marginally higher fraction of reads mapping to Ψ. We speculate that this apparently enhanced preference of CANC for Ψ is because the membrane bound Gag, that exhibits more promiscuous binding to the viral genome (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>), is not present when CANC is used.</p><fig-group><fig id="fig1" position="float"><label>Figure 1.</label><caption><title>Crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) method validation and effects of Ψ perturbations on Gag recognition.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Schematic representation of the pCANC construct. Asterisk indicates the mutation introduced at the matrix (MA) start codon (ATG to ACG). (<bold>B</bold>) Read density distribution on viral RNA from CLIP experiments in which constructs encoding Gag, CANC, or CANC with mutant Ψ elements (CANC DIS-GAGA and CANC InsGGAA) were used. The y-axis represents the decimal fraction of all reads that mapped to the viral genome in which a given nucleotide was present. The x-axis indicates the nucleotide position on the viral genome. A colinear schematic HIV-1 genome is presented above each set of charts. (<bold>C</bold>) Expanded view of read densities for the 400 nucleotides at the 5’ end of the viral genome. For (<bold>B</bold>) and (<bold>C</bold>), CLIP assays for each construct were repeated in at least two independent experiments, and the average read density is plotted.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig1sdata1"><label>Figure 1—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Read density data for <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1B</xref> and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1C</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig1-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig1-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig1s1" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 1—figure supplement 1.</label><caption><title>Crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) procedure.</title><p>Schematic flow diagram depiction of the CLIP procedure used in this study.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig1-figsupp1-v2.tif"/></fig></fig-group><p>Both the full-length Gag protein and CANC exhibited characteristic binding to Ψ involving three ‘peaks’ of read intensity corresponding to U5, SL1, and SL3/4 that are brought into proximity in the folded minimal packaging structure (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib6">Bieniasz and Telesnitsky, 2018</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib45">Lu et al., 2011</xref>; <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1B and C</xref>). To investigate the effects of RNA perturbation on CANC recognition, we prepared two Ψ mutants. In one mutant, the GC-rich ‘kissing’ loop (GCGCGC) in the dimerization initiation site (DIS) was substituted with a GAGA tetraloop (CANC DIS-GAGA) to prevent RNA dimerization (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib45">Lu et al., 2011</xref>). In a second mutant, four bases ‘GGAA’ were appended at the 5’ end of the gRNA, immediately 5’ to three guanosines at the transcription start site of HIV-1 viral genome (CANC InsGGAA). These nucleotides, along with the 5’ cap affect the structure of the entire 5’ leader (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib19">Ding et al., 2021</xref>). While CANC bound to the unmanipulated Ψ sequence with high specificity, the CANC InsGGAA Ψ mutant was bound comparatively poorly by CANC, with failure of the 3’ portion of Ψ to bind CANC (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1B and C</xref>). This finding is consistent with previous studies showing that the exposure of the 5’-cap of gRNA to the translational machinery due to ‘GGAA’ insertion inhibits gRNA packaging (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib19">Ding et al., 2021</xref>). The CANC DIS-GAGA Ψ mutant, which presumably favors the retention of a monomeric RNA, was bound by CANC specifically within the Ψ element, but with the exclusion of the SL1 stem-loop (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1">Figure 1B and C</xref>). This finding is consistent with previous findings that other Ψ elements are retained in the DIS-GAGA structure as in native dimer (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib35">Keane et al., 2015</xref>) and suggests that the dimerized RNA elements are part of the structure recognized by Gag. Overall, these results validate the utility of the CLIP method used herein and are consistent with the finding that the tertiary, and to some extent the quaternary, structure of the Ψ element is important for accurate recognition by Gag.</p></sec><sec id="s2-2"><title>HIV-1 CA is required for specific binding to Ψ</title><p>We next compared the ability of various manipulated CANC proteins to bind to the gRNA in CLIP assays (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2A</xref>). For each protein, the specificity of Ψ binding was represented quantitatively by plotting the number of Gag-bound gRNA-derived reads derived from the Ψ region in CLIP experiments as a fraction of all gRNA-derived reads (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s1">Figure 2—figure supplement 1</xref>). First, we performed CLIP experiments with CANC mutants with deletions introduced into the NC domain, whereby the N-terminal zinc finger (CANC dZF1), the C-terminal zinc finger (CANC dZF2), or both zinc fingers (CANC dZF) were deleted (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2A</xref>). The deletion of either zinc finger in the NC domain caused a marked reduction in specific Ψ binding, while the deletion of both zinc fingers nearly completely abolished specific Ψ binding, despite the presence of similar levels of protein for each of the mutant CANC proteins (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2B</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s1">Figure 2—figure supplements 1</xref>–<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s2">2</xref>). This observation is consistent with earlier findings that NC is required for the specific interaction between Gag and Ψ (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib3">Aldovini and Young, 1990</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib17">Didierlaurent et al., 2011</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib20">Dorfman et al., 1993</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib27">Gorelick et al., 1990</xref>).</p><fig-group><fig id="fig2" position="float"><label>Figure 2.</label><caption><title>RNA binding specificity of nucleocapsid (NC) zinc-finger deletion mutants, monomeric NC, and artificially multimerized NC proteins.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Schematic representation of the constructs used. Shaded regions indicate NC zinc fingers. (<bold>B</bold>) Read density distribution on viral RNA from crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) experiments in which constructs encoding CANC, and mutant derivatives with deletions of the zinc finger 1 (CANC dZF1), zinc finger 2 (CANC dZF2), or both zinc fingers (CANC dZF) were used. Alternatively, a construct (NC) in which capsid (CA) was deleted was used. Each chart represents at least two independent experiments, and the average read density is plotted. (<bold>C</bold>) Western blot analysis of Gag-derived proteins following chemical crosslinking in living cells using 1,6-Bismaleimidohexane (BMH) prior to cell lysis. Proteins were detected with an anti-NC antibody. (<bold>D</bold>) Read density distribution on viral RNA from CLIP experiments in which constructs encoding chimeric NC proteins with artificial multimerizing domains were used. Each chart represents at least two independent experiments, and the average read density is plotted.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig2sdata1"><label>Figure 2—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots for <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2C</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p><p><supplementary-material id="fig2sdata2"><label>Figure 2—source data 2.</label><caption><title>Read density data for <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2B</xref> and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2D</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-data2-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig2s1" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 2—figure supplement 1.</label><caption><title>Quantification of Ψ binding specificity by CANC, nucleocapsid (NC), and artificially multimerized NC proteins.</title><p>The decimal fraction of reads, calculated by dividing the number of reads that mapped in the Ψ region of the genome (coordinates: 101–356) by the total number of reads mapped to the viral genome, is plotted. Each dot represented data from one independent experiment; error bars indicate SD.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-figsupp1-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig2s2" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 2—figure supplement 2.</label><caption><title>Quantification of protein expression levels of crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) constructs.</title><p>Western blot analysis of the CANC and chimeric fusion proteins used in CLIP experiments. Serial dilution of lysates containing CANC and Hsp90 was used to generate standard curves for quantification. Relative protein levels for each construct (numbers below each lane of the top panel) were first calculated relative to CANC (set at 100) and then further normalized based on the levels of Hsp90 for each construct. The Odyssey Image Studio (LI-COR Biosciences) was used to quantify protein bands.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig2s2sdata1"><label>Figure 2—figure supplement 2—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s2">Figure 2—figure supplement 2</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-figsupp2-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-figsupp2-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig2s3" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 2—figure supplement 3.</label><caption><title>Quantitative analysis of BMH crosslinked species in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2C</xref>.</title><p>Quantitative analysis of 1,6-Bismaleimidohexane (BMH) crosslinked artifically multimerized NC proteins in the western blot in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2C</xref>. The x-axis shows the pixel location, and the y-axis indicates the average pixel intensity in the lane that was analyzed. The presumed stoichiometry of CANC multimerization based on migration in the gel is marked above each peak. The Odyssey Image Studio Suite (LI-COR Biosciences) was used to quantify protein bands.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig2-figsupp3-v2.tif"/></fig></fig-group><p>Next, to test whether an isolated NC domain was sufficient for specific binding to Ψ, we deleted the region encoding the CA domain from the CANC construct, thereby generating a construct that encodes NC (along with the SP2-p6 C-terminal extension) with an N-terminal 3xHA tag. CLIP experiments using this construct revealed that NC was well expressed but was not sufficient to bind specifically to Ψ. Instead, low read counts, distributed across the entire HIV-1 genome, were obtained (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2B</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s1">Figure 2—figure supplements 1</xref> and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s2">2</xref>). Indeed, the deficit in specific Ψ binding associated with CA deletion was as profound as the deficit associated with deletion of both NC zinc fingers (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2B</xref>).</p><p>Since CANC may form multimers, we considered the possibility that multimerized NC may be sufficient to enable Ψ-specific RNA binding. Thus, to test whether CA-induced multimerization could be recapitulated by fusion to heterologous protein-protein interaction domains that can drive hexamerization, we substituted the CA domain in the CANC constructs. The C terminal residues of CA and SP1 important for CASP1 6-helix bundle formation (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib1">Accola et al., 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib14">Datta et al., 2011</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Schur et al., 2016</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib62">Wagner et al., 2016</xref>) were kept intact, and we placed GCN4pII (GCN4pII-SP1-NC) or GCN4pAA (GCN4pAA-SP1-NC) leucine zippers (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib32">Harbury et al., 1994</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib44">Liu et al., 2006</xref>), or ccHex2 synthetic peptide (ccHex2-SP1-NC) between the 3xHA tag and the CASP1 helix (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2A</xref>). The ccHex2 synthetic peptide forms hexameric parallel a-helical barrel coil-coils (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib57">Thomson et al., 2014</xref>). To test for multimerization in cells, we treated HEK293T cells transfected with plasmids expressing CANC and derivatives thereof with 1,6-Bismaleimidohexane (BMH), a cell-permeable maleimide crosslinker that mediates irreversible conjugation between sulfhydryl groups (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib15">Dewson, 2015</xref>). Protein multimerization was then assessed by western blot analysis of cell lysates with an anti-NC antibody. The chimeric proteins were expressed at level similar to CANC and were able to form multimers, up to and including hexamers, as indicated by the appearance of BMH crosslinked species (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2C</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s2">Figure 2—figure supplements 2</xref> and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s3">3</xref>). Nevertheless, the chimeric, multimeric NC fusion proteins did not bind specifically to Ψ (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2D</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s1">Figure 2—figure supplement 1</xref>); instead, they exhibited low-level indiscriminate binding across the gRNA, similar to the isolated monomeric NC domain (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2">Figure 2B</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig2s1">Figure 2—figure supplement 1</xref>). These results suggest that CA is required for the specific interaction between CANC and Ψ and that CA provides some function beyond simple multimerization.</p></sec><sec id="s2-3"><title>CA driven assembly of a nascent immature Gag lattice is required for specific Ψ recognition</title><p>To investigate how CA drives the specific interaction between CANC and Ψ, we designed 21 CA substitution mutants. These substitution mutants were selected based on the structures of HIV-1 immature Gag lattice and mutagenesis studies that revealed residues important for mature or immature CA assembly (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib24">Forshey et al., 2002</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib26">Ganser-Pornillos et al., 2004</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Schur et al., 2016</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib61">von Schwedler et al., 2003</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib62">Wagner et al., 2016</xref>). 10 substitution mutants targeted the CA N-terminal domain (NTD): R18A/N21A, A22D, E28A/E29A, P38A, A42D, E45A, D51A, R100A/S102A, T107A/T108A, and T110A/Q112A, and 11 substitution mutants targeted the CA C-terminal domain (CTD) and SP1 region: K158A, W184A/M185A, D197A, Q219A, G222A, P224A, K227A, R229A, SP1 M4A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3A</xref>).</p><fig id="fig3" position="float"><label>Figure 3.</label><caption><title>Amino acids substitutions targeting capsid (CA) interfaces in the immature Gag lattice.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Amino acids selected for substitution are depicted onto a CA monomer component of the immature HIV-1 Gag lattice (adapted from PDB 7ASH). Residues subjected to substitution are shown in ball and stick presentation. (<bold>B</bold>) A schematic of the immature hexagonal CA lattice showing twofold, threefold, and sixfold symmetry contacts. (<bold>C–E</bold>) Depiction of substitutions targeting the twofold (<bold>C</bold>), threefold (<bold>D</bold>) , and sixfold (<bold>E</bold>) CA-CA interaction interfaces. One monomer of CASP1 is labeled, and the residues at the respective CA-CA interaction interfaces are colored in red. Other monomers are shown in gray surface presentation.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig3-v2.tif"/></fig><p>These substitutions targeted interfaces at either the twofold, threefold, or sixfold axes of symmetry, where interactions required for the formation of the complete immature Gag lattice occur (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig3">Figure 3B–E</xref>). Each mutant was subjected to three types of experiment: first, in vivo chemical crosslinking was performed to test propensity of mutant CANC proteins to multimerize. Second, virus particle production experiments were done in which the CA substitutions were introduced to full-length HIV-1 NL4-3 and Gag processing/extracellular virion formation tested. Finally, the panel of CANC mutants was subjected to CLIP experiments to test for specific binding to Ψ.</p><p>In the in vivo CANC chemical crosslinking experiments, we observed a ladder-like pattern of bands indicating the cytoplasmic formation of higher-order multimers for the unmanipulated CANC, as well as certain CANC mutants (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s1">Figure 4—figure supplement 1</xref>). Indeed, the SDS PAGE/western blot approach permitted the detection of crosslinked species containing up to ~8–10 CANC subunits. Based on these results, the CA mutants could be divided into three categories: (i) mutants with no deficits in the formation of higher-order multimers, specifically R18A/N21A, P38A, E45A, Q219A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A; (ii) mutants with moderate deficits in multimerization, characterized by reduced abundance of higher order crosslinked species; these mutants included E28A/E29A, D51A, R100A/S102A, T107A/T108A, T110A/Q112A, and R229A; and (iii) mutants with severe defects in multimerization, characterized by the appearance of CANC monomers as the major species even after crosslinking; these mutants included A22D, A42D, W184A/M185A, D197A, G222A, P224A, and SP1 M4A (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s1">Figure 4—figure supplement 1</xref>). The phenotype of some mutants in the in vivo chemical crosslinking experiment was expected based on the HIV Gag/CANC immature lattice structures and previous in vitro assembly studies (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Schur et al., 2016</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib61">von Schwedler et al., 2003</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib62">Wagner et al., 2016</xref>). The effect of the mutations varied, and substitution of residues with more bulky residues (e.g. A22D and A42D) in the CA NTD was sometimes more disruptive to CA multimerization than the substitution of residues with less bulky residues (e.g. R18A/N21A, E28A/E29A, and T110A/Q112A). Nevertheless, substitutions that selectively targeted the twofold interface (W184A/M185A), the threefold interface (A22D and A42D), or the sixfold interface (R100A/S102A, T110A/Q112A, T107A/T108A, D197A, G222A, P224A, and SP1 M4A) each caused defects in CANC multimerization, consistent with previous studies showing that these interfaces are required for the immature lattice assembly (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib1">Accola et al., 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib14">Datta et al., 2011</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib16">Dick et al., 2018</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib43">Liang et al., 2002</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib46">Mallery et al., 2021</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Schur et al., 2016</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib61">von Schwedler et al., 2003</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib62">Wagner et al., 2016</xref>).</p><fig-group><fig id="fig4" position="float"><label>Figure 4.</label><caption><title>Effects of caspid (CA) substitutions on the in vivo multimerization and RNA binding properties of CANC proteins assessed by crosslinking experiments.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Western blot analysis of CANC proteins following chemical crosslinking in living cells using BMH prior to cell lysis. Proteins were detected with anti-nucleocaspid (NC) antibody. (<bold>B</bold>) Typical results of crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) experiments of using CANC mutants. The left panel indicates the specific Ψ binding by CANC and certain mutants thereof. Mutants in this category include: R18A/N21A, P38A, E45A, Q219A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A. The right panel indicates lack of specific Ψ binding; mutants in this category include: A22D, E28A/E29A, A42D, D51A, R100A/S102A, T107A/T108A, T110A/Q112A, W184A/M185A, D197A, G222A, P224A, R229A, and SP1 M4A. CLIP results for each mutant are shown in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s3">Figure 4—figure supplement 3</xref>. (<bold>C</bold>) Quantification of Ψ binding specificity of CANC mutants. The decimal fraction of reads, calculated by dividing the number of reads that mapped in the Ψ region of the genome (coordinates: 101–356) by the total number of reads that mapped to the viral genome, is plotted. Each dot represents data from an independent experiment. Error bars indicate the SD of all independent experiments.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig4sdata1"><label>Figure 4—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig4s1" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 1.</label><caption><title>Quantitative analysis of BMH crosslinked species in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>.</title><p>Quantitative analysis of BMH crosslinked CANC proteins and mutants thereof from the western blot in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>. The x-axis shows the pixel location, and the y-axis indicates the average pixel intensity in the lane that was analyzed. The presumed stoichiometry of CANC multimerization based on migration in the gel is marked above each peak. The Odyssey Image Studio Suite (LI-COR Biosciences) was used to quantify protein bands.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp1-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig4s2" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 2.</label><caption><title>Western blot analysis of HIV-1 NL4-3 caspid (CA) mutants in particle production experiments.</title><p>Lysates of 293T cells transfected with the indicated HIV-1 NL4-3 proviral plasmids were subjected to western blotting with anti-CA and anti-Hsp90 antibodies. Lysates of virions pelleted from the corresponding culture supernatants were similarly analyzed using the anti-CA antibody. Relative intensity of total cellular Gag and virion p24 bands is listed below each lane. HIV-1 NL4-3 (wild type) cellular Gag and virion p24 levels were arbitrarily set to 100 for comparison. The Odyssey Image Studio Suite (LI-COR Biosciences) was used to quantify protein bands.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig4s2sdata1"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 2—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots from <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s2">Figure 4—figure supplement 2</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp2-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp2-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig4s3" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 3.</label><caption><title>Effect of caspid (CA) mutations on CANC RNA binding specificity.</title><p>Read density distribution on viral RNA from CLIP experiments in which constructs encoding CANC mutants were used. Each chart represents at least two independent experiments, and the average read density is plotted.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig4s3sdata1"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 3—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Read density data for <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s3">Figure 4—figure supplement 3</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp3-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp3-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig4s4" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 4.</label><caption><title>Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) quantification of copies of unspliced gRNA in virions generated by HIV-1 NL4-3 and caspid (CA) mutants in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s2">Figure 4—figure supplement 2</xref>.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Virion p24 CA protein quantification of HIV-1 NL4-3 and CA mutants thereof that were able to generate extracellular virions. Serial dilutions of HIV-1 NL4-3 virions were used to generate a standard curve for quantification. The relative intensity of each CA mutant band is shown below each lane, and the HIV-1 NL4-3 virion p24 CA level was arbitrarily set to 100 for comparison. (<bold>B</bold>) Relative gRNA packaging efficiency for HIV-1 NL4-3 and mutants, derived by dividing the copies of gRNA in virion pellets by the p24 CA levels as measured in (<bold>A</bold>). HIV-1 NL4-3 packaging efficiency was arbitrarily set to 100 for comparison. Error bar indicates SEM of three technical replicates for each sample. Experiment was repeated twice, and the results of one representative experiment are shown.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig4s4sdata1"><label>Figure 4—figure supplement 4—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots from <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s4">Figure 4—figure supplement 4A</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp4-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig4-figsupp4-v2.tif"/></fig></fig-group><p>To test whether the CA mutants could support lattice assembly that would lead to the generation of extracellular virions, we introduced the same set of CA substitutions into a full-length infectious HIV-1 NL4-3 proviral construct and assessed virion production by proviral plasmid transfected HEK293T cells. This analysis revealed that mutants such as R18A/N21A, P38A, E45A, Q219A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A generated virions at, or close to, wild-type levels, while other mutants either generated reduced levels of virions or failed to generate virions (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s2">Figure 4—figure supplement 2</xref>). These results are consistent with previous studies (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib60">von Schwedler et al., 1998</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib61">von Schwedler et al., 2003</xref>). Results from the in vivo CANC chemical crosslinking experiments and virion production experiments showed a correlation between the ability of a given CA mutant to affect CANC multimerization and virion production: mutants that formed high-order CANC multimers produced more virions than mutants in which CANC multimerization was impaired (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4A</xref>, <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s1">Figure 4—figure supplements 1</xref>–<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s2">2</xref>).</p><p>When CANC proteins encoding the same panel of mutants were subjected to CLIP experiments, the mutants could be divided into two categories. One group of mutants bound to Ψ with high specificity; this group included R18A/N21A, P38A, E45A, Q219A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A. A second group included all mutants other than the aforementioned group of six; this group of CANC mutants fail to bind to Ψ specifically (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4">Figure 4B and C</xref> and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s3">Figure 4—figure supplement 3</xref>). Comparison of the behaviors of the CANC mutants in CLIP experiments and in vivo cytoplasmic chemical crosslinking experiments revealed a correlation between CA multimerization and Ψ-specific binding: CANC mutants that were readily able to form high-order multimers in the cytoplasm bound to Ψ with high specificity, similar to the wild-type CANC (in the cases of R18A/N21A, P38A, E45A, Q219A, SP1 T8I, and SP1 T12A). Conversely, mutants that had deficits in cytoplasmic multimerization failed to bind specifically to Ψ. Notably, impairment of Ψ binding imposed by CA substitutions occurred irrespective of which interface (twofold, threefold, or sixfold) was targeted. Overall, these experiments suggest that the ability of CANC to form a nascent immature lattice is important for specific recognition of Ψ.</p><p>To examine the relationship between cytosolic CANC binding to Ψ and packaging of vRNA into extracellular virions, we measured the vRNA:Gag ratio for all the CA mutants that generated some level of extracellular particles. This included some mutants that, in the context of CANC, exhibited impaired cytoplasmic multimerization and specific Ψ binding in the cytoplasm (A22D, E28A/E29A, and D51A) or for which Ψ binding appeared marginally impaired (Q219A and R229A). Nevertheless, these mutants were able to generate extracellular particles in the context of full-length HIV-1 NL4-3. There were only minor variations in the vRNA:Gag ratios for these mutants, suggesting that they are able to package vRNA (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig4s4">Figure 4—figure supplement 4</xref>). However, given that these mutants generated extracellular virions, they must, by definition, have been able to assemble. An essential step in assembly is the generation of an immature Gag lattice. Thus, these mutant full-length Gag proteins must have assembled an immature Gag lattice, despite the fact that the CANC proteins do not appear to assemble into higher-order multimers in the cytoplasm. We posit that the CA mutants that generate virions in the context of full-length virus but do not generate high-order CANC multimers in the cytosol, harbor partial defects in immature lattice formation that are evident in the context of CANC in the cytosol but are at least partly suppressed when Gag is targeted to membrane in the context of a full-length Gag protein. This idea is consistent with a notion proposed by <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib50">O’Carroll et al., 2012</xref>, who invoke functional redundancy between membrane binding, CA-CA interaction, and RNA binding in driving HIV-1 particle assembly. Notably, these results do not alter the interpretation that immature lattice assembly is required for Ψ binding but do suggest that immature lattice assembly can occur either in the cytosol or at the plasma membrane to enable Ψ recognition.</p></sec><sec id="s2-4"><title>Deficits in Ψ recognition are exhibited by inositol hexakisphosphate binding-deficient mutants but are restored in second-site revertants</title><p>The abundant intracellular small molecule inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) coordinates two rings of positively charged lysine residues formed by K158 and K227 at the base of the CA hexamer (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib16">Dick et al., 2018</xref>). As such, it is required for the assembly of the immature Gag lattice in cells. To corroborate the above findings that the formation of a nascent immature lattice is required for specific Ψ binding, we performed CLIP experiments using two mutants (CANC K158A and CANC K227A) that are impaired for IP6 coordination and are thus incapable of particle assembly. Both CANC K158A and CANC K227A mutants exhibited deficits in Ψ binding (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5A</xref>). A second-site revertant of K158A and K227A, specifically a lattice stabilizing substitution in SP1(SP1 T8I), restores virion assembly and viral infectivity (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib46">Mallery et al., 2021</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib52">Poston et al., 2021</xref>). Notably, introduction of this second-site substitution (in CANC K158A/SP1 T8I and CANC K227A/SP1 T8I) enabled otherwise Ψ-binding defective CANC proteins to bind Ψ with high specificity (<xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5B and C</xref>, and <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5s1">Figure 5—figure supplement 1</xref>). Thus, these results reinforce the conclusion that the specific binding to Ψ requires the correct assembly of the nascent viral immature CA lattice.</p><fig-group><fig id="fig5" position="float"><label>Figure 5.</label><caption><title>Analysis of multimerization and RNA binding by hexakisphosphate (IP6)-binding deficient mutants and second-site revertants.</title><p>(<bold>A</bold>) Western blot analysis of mutants CANC K158A, CANC K227A, and the corresponding second-site revertants CANC K158A/SP1 T8I and CANC K227A/SP1 T8I following chemical crosslinking in living cells using BMH prior to cell lysis. Proteins were detected with anti-NC antibody. (<bold>B</bold>) Read density distribution on viral RNA from crosslinking immunoprecipitation (CLIP) experiments in which constructs encoding CANC, CANC K158A, CANC K158A/SP1 T8I, CANC K227A, and CANC K227A/SP1 T8I were used. Each chart represents at least two independent experiments, and the average read density is plotted. (<bold>C</bold>) Quantification of Ψ binding specificity of the mutants in panel (<bold>B</bold>). The decimal fraction of reads, calculated by dividing the number of reads that mapped in the Ψ region of the genome (coordinates: 101–356) by the total number of reads mapped to the viral genome, is plotted.</p><p><supplementary-material id="fig5sdata1"><label>Figure 5—source data 1.</label><caption><title>Uncropped and labeled blots from <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5A</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig5-data1-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p><p><supplementary-material id="fig5sdata2"><label>Figure 5—source data 2.</label><caption><title>Read density data for <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5B, C</xref>.</title></caption><media mimetype="application" mime-subtype="zip" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig5-data2-v2.zip"/></supplementary-material></p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig5-v2.tif"/></fig><fig id="fig5s1" position="float" specific-use="child-fig"><label>Figure 5—figure supplement 1.</label><caption><title>Quantitative analysis of BMH crosslinked species in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5A</xref>.</title><p>Quantitative analysis of BMH crosslinked CANC proteins and mutants of the western blot in <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig5">Figure 5A</xref>. x-axis shows the pixel location and y-axis indicates the average pixel intensity in the lane that was analyzed. Degree of CANC and mutants multimerization is marked above each peak. The Odyssey Image Studio Suite (LI-COR Biosciences) was used to quantify protein bands.</p></caption><graphic mimetype="image" mime-subtype="tiff" xlink:href="elife-83548-fig5-figsupp1-v2.tif"/></fig></fig-group></sec></sec><sec id="s3" sec-type="discussion"><title>Discussion</title><p>We conclude that the initiation of the assembly of the immature HIV-1 Gag lattice in infected cells is required for the maintenance of the interaction between Gag/CANC and the Ψ element of the gRNA. Nevertheless, questions remain about the precise number of Gag/CANC monomers that are required to assemble to enable specific Ψ binding. Imaging studies of the HIV-1 virion assembly process suggest that a small number of Gag molecules (below the limit of detection by fluorescent microscopy) is involved in initial Gag/gRNA complex formation (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib33">Hendrix et al., 2015</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib34">Jouvenet et al., 2009</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib38">Kutluay and Bieniasz, 2010</xref>). However, the ability of CANC to multimerize into higher-order multimers (such as 10-mers or greater) in our in vivo chemical crosslinking experiments predicted specific Ψ binding, and the twofold, threefold, and sixfold CA interaction interfaces are all required. These findings suggest that perhaps high-order multimers of CANC may be needed to recognize Ψ. The artificially multimerized cytoplasmic NC domains were able to generate hexamers, but unable to bind Ψ, consistent with the notion that higher order multimerization is required for Ψ binding. Alternatively, it is also possible that CA is required to precisely position NC domains within a hexamer to permit specific Ψ binding.</p><p>Several lines of evidence from previously published work are consistent with the proposition that high-order Gag multimers bind to Ψ: (1) SHAPE and XL-SHAPE experiments identified at least 10 potential Gag/NC interaction sites in gRNA which are important for packaging (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib36">Kenyon et al., 2015</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib64">Wilkinson et al., 2008</xref>); (2) electrophoretic mobility shift experiments suggest that at least 20 Gag molecules were needed to form a complete Gag/leader gRNA dimer complex (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib22">D’Souza et al., 2021</xref>); (3) studies of NC and Ψ interactions with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) suggest that there are at least two dozen high-affinity NC-binding sites in a dimerization competent form gRNA (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib18">Ding et al., 2020</xref>). Further studies are thus needed to determine the precise stoichiometry between Gag and Ψ interaction at the initiation of Ψ binding and particle assembly.</p><p>There were some unexpected findings from our chemical crosslinking experiments. For example, the W184A/M185A mutant was mainly monomeric under the crosslinking conditions in our assay, despite the fact that W184/M185 are located at an inter-hexamer interface rather than an intra-hexamer interface. In a previous report, a CA quadruple mutant A14C/E45C/W184A/M185A was able to form a hexamer under reducing conditions (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib51">Pornillos et al., 2009</xref>). Possible explanations for this discrepancy include: (i) the A14C/E45C/W184A/M185A CA mutant was purified and crosslinked in vitro, while in our study, W184A/M185A crosslinking was attempted in cells; (ii) the A14C/E45C/W184A/M185A CA mutant assembled through mature lattice interactions, whereas herein the W184A/M185A mutant was constrained by N- and C-terminal extensions to form the immature lattice, which involves different interfaces. Another unexpected finding from our in vivo chemical crosslinking studies was that certain mutants, such as A22D and A42D, were mainly monomeric under in vivo crosslinking conditions even though A22D and A42D might be expected to form dimers or hexamers because these substitutions disrupt the three-fold CA-CA interaction interface rather than the twofold or the sixfold CA-CA interaction interfaces (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib55">Schur et al., 2016</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib62">Wagner et al., 2016</xref>). This result, along with the fact that the dimer interface mutants E28A/E29A and W184A/M185A mutants were also mainly monomeric in cells, suggests that both dimer and trimer CA interfaces contribute to the formation of early lattice assembly intermediates. Moreover, mutants that failed to form crosslinkable dimers via inter-hexamer contacts also failed to form hexamers, suggesting that inter-hexamer contacts are important for hexamer assembly. Thus, previous models (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib28">Grime and Voth, 2012</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib58">Tomasini et al., 2018</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib59">Tsiang et al., 2012</xref>) which proposed that trimer-of-dimers of CA are basic building block of the HIV-1 immature lattice are not consistent with our crosslinking results. Overall, the results of the crosslinking experiments suggest that all the three CA-CA interaction interfaces (twofold, threefold, and sixfold interaction interfaces) contribute simultaneously to immature lattice formation since disruptions of either twofold (W184A/M185A), threefold (A22D and A42D), or sixfold (D197A, G222A, P224A, and SP1 M4A) CA-CA interaction interfaces lead to overall defects rather than the formation of discrete low-order multimeric species.</p><p>Recently, Duchon et al. used complementation approaches with Gag proteins whose multimerization was driven by leucine-zippers to show that membrane anchoring can increase the efficiency of RNA packaging, whether driven by interactions between NC and Ψ or by an artificial RNA binding protein:RNA target pair (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib23">Duchon et al., 2021</xref>). Nevertheless, our study shows that membrane binding is not required for CANC-Ψ interaction in the cytoplasm of cells. Given that the localization of Gag can change with its concentration in cells, it is possible that the actual site of Gag-Ψ interaction could also change as Gag accumulates in infected cells. Notably, we found that certain CA mutations that conferred multimerization and Ψ binding deficits that were evident in the context of cytosolic CANC could generate some level of extracellular particles. In these cases, the vRNA:Gag ratio in extracellular virions was close to that of WT. This finding suggests that membrane binding can suppress both the Gag multimerization and Ψ binding deficits exhibited by some CA mutants and, thus, that Ψ binding can, in principle, occur at the plasma membrane or in the cytosol, provided that higher order multimerization occurs.</p><p>Overall, our study shows that CA is essential for the specific interaction between HIV-1 Gag and Ψ. CA is therefore key, not only for controlling the morphology of HIV-1 particle assembly but also for selective viral genome packaging. Based on the evidence that HIV-1, HIV-2, and SIV Gag can co-assemble and package each other’s genome (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib2">Al Shamsi et al., 2011</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib25">Franke et al., 1994</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib49">Motomura et al., 2008</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib53">Rizvi and Panganiban, 1993</xref>) and the conservation of primary and tertiary Gag structures between these viruses, the insights gained from this study are likely applicable across primate lentiviruses. Whether the findings described herein constitute a more generalized principle, and that formation of nascent CA or NC lattices enables specific interactions between virion proteins and genomes in the assembly of other viruses with RNA genomes, remains to be determined.</p></sec><sec id="s4" sec-type="materials|methods"><title>Materials and methods</title><table-wrap id="keyresource" position="anchor"><label>Key resources table</label><table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left" valign="bottom">Reagent type (species) or resource</th><th align="left" valign="bottom">Designation</th><th align="left" valign="bottom">Source or reference</th><th align="left" valign="bottom">Identifiers</th><th align="left" valign="bottom">Additional information</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Cell line (<italic>Homo sapiens</italic>)</td><td align="char" char="." valign="bottom">293T</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">ATCC</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">CRL-3216</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Periodically checked for mycoplasma and retrovirus contamination not authenticated since purchased directly from ATCC</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Transfected construct (HIV-1)</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">pNL4-3 and CA mutants introduced in pNL4-3</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">This paper</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For viral production assay and RT-qPCR gRNA quantification assay</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Transfected construct (HIV-1)</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">NL4-3 (MA-3xHA/PR-) and its derivatives</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">This paper</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP experiments and BMH crosslink experiments</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Antibody</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Mouse monoclonal anti-HIV-1 p24CA</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">NIH AIDS Reagent Program</td><td align="char" char="hyphen" valign="bottom">183-H12-5C</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">WB (1:100)</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Antibody</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Rabbit polyclonal anti-HIV-1 Nucleocapsid</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">This paper</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">WB (1:2000)</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Commercial assay or kit</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Power SYBR Green RNA-to-CT 1-Step Kit</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">ThermoFisher</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Cat# 4389986</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Chemical compound and drug</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">BMH (bismaleimidohexane)</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">ThermoFisher</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Cat# 22330</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Prism</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Graphpad</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP data analysis graphing</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Image Studio</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">LI-COR Biosciences</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For western blot band quantification</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Cutadapt</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.14806/ej.17.1.200">https://doi.org/10.14806/ej.17.1.200</ext-link></td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP data processing</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">FASTX toolkit</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://hannonlab.cshl.edu/fastx_toolkit">http://hannonlab.cshl.edu/fastx_toolkit</ext-link></td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP data processing</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">Bowtie</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2009-10-3-r25">https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2009-10-3-r25</ext-link></td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP data processing</td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="bottom">Software and algorithm</td><td align="left" valign="bottom">SAMTools</td><td align="left" valign="bottom"><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btp352">https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btp352</ext-link></td><td align="left" valign="bottom"/><td align="left" valign="bottom">For CLIP data processing</td></tr></tbody></table></table-wrap><sec id="s4-1"><title>Plasmids and cells</title><p>Constructs for CLIP experiments were generated based on a previously described HIV-1 NL4-3 (MA-3xHA/PR-) proviral construct, which contains a 3xHA tag within the stalk region of MA (between residues 127 and 128) and an inactivating mutation (D81A) in the viral protease (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>). The CANC constructs were generated by changing the start codon (ATG) of the MA domain of NL4-3 (MA-3xHA/PR-) to ACG to abrogate the expression of MA, thus translation begins at an AUG codon at the amino terminus of the 3xHA tag. CANC variants were generated by overlapping PCR to introduce substitutions in the CA domain. The NC construct was generated by overlapping PCR to delete the CA domain in the CANC construct. GCN4pII, GCN4pAA, and ccHex2 chimeric constructs were generated by overlapping PCR to replace the CA domain in the CANC construct (but retaining the CA C-terminal residues ‘<sub>223</sub>GPGHKARVL<sub>231</sub>’ intact for CASP1 helix formation) with GCN4pII or GCN4pAA leucine zippers or with ccHex2 synthetic peptide. For GCN4pII-SP1-NC constructs, the amino-acid sequence and junctions are as follows: <bold>RMKQIEDKIEEILSKIYHIENEIARIKKLIGER</bold>TS<italic>GPGHKARVL</italic>, where the GCN4pII is in bold, the CA C-terminal residues in italic, and a two amino acids ‘TS’ linker in between. For GCN4pAA-SP1-NC constructs, the amino-acid sequence and junctions are as follows: <bold>MKVKQLADAVEELASANYHLANAVARLAKAVGER</bold>GS<italic>GPGHKARVL</italic>, where the GCN4pAA is in bold, the CA C-terminal residues in italic, and a two amino acids ‘GS’ linker in between. For ccHex2-SP1-NC constructs, the amino-acid sequence and junctions are as follows: <bold>GEIAKSLKEIAKSLKEIAWSLKEIAKSLKG</bold>S<italic>GPGHKARVL</italic>, where the ccHex2 is in bold, the CA C-terminal residues in italic, and a single amino acid ‘S’ in between. In the virion production assay, substitution mutations were introduced into the CA domain of the HIV-1 NL4-3 wild-type proviral plasmid. HEK293T cells were transfected with these constructs for CLIP experiments, in-cell chemical crosslinking experiments, and virion production experiments.</p></sec><sec id="s4-2"><title>Crosslinking immunoprecipitation coupled with sequencing</title><p>HEK293T cells at 90% confluency in a 15 cm dish were transfected with 25 µg proviral plasmids using polyethylenimine (PEI). Cell culture media was replaced with fresh media 10–14 hr after transfection. Ribonucleoside analog 4-thiouridine (4SU) was added to the media 12–14 hr before UV crosslinking at a final concentration of 100 μM. On the day of crosslinking, cells were rinsed with PBS once and crosslinked with 500 mJ/cm<sup>2</sup> UV (λ=365 nm) in a Boekel UV crosslinker. After UV crosslinking, cells were resuspended in 15 ml PBS, and cell pellets were collected at 500 × <italic>g</italic> for 5 min of centrifugation. Cell pellets were stored at –80°C until use. The CLIP procedure was modified based on previously published protocols (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib56">Shema Mugisha et al., 2020</xref>). Modifications are in two areas: (i) a 3’ adapter containing an infrared dye (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib65">Zarnegar et al., 2016</xref>) was used instead of a 3’ adapter labeled with <sup>32</sup>P; (ii) the 3’ adapter was ligated to protein/RNA complexes on antibody-conjugated Dynabeads (ThermoFisher 10004D) instead of ligating to purified RNAs. Rnase A/T1 mix (ThermoFisher EN0551) was used at a dilution of 1:100 to digest RNAs in the cell lysate before immunoprecipitation. For immunoprecipitation of CLIP constructs, we used anti-HA mouse IgG (BioLegend, 901503). Alternatively, in experiments with artificially multimerized NC proteins, we used a custom rabbit polyclonal IgG antibody raised against the NC domain of the HIV-1 NL4-3.</p></sec><sec id="s4-3"><title>Bioinformatic analysis</title><p>The CLIP library was sequenced with Illumina Nextseq 500 platform. Raw fastq reads were processed with Cutadapt (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib47">Martin, 2011</xref>), and reads that were fewer than 20 nt, did not contain the 3’ adapter, or contained ambiguous nucleotides were excluded. Barcodes were collapsed and trimmed with the FASTX toolkit (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://hannonlab.cshl.edu/fastx_toolkit">http://hannonlab.cshl.edu/fastx_toolkit</ext-link>) prior to mapping. Reads were mapped using Bowtie (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib40">Langmead et al., 2009</xref>) to the corresponding viral genomes in CLIP experiments. SAMtools (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib42">Li et al., 2009</xref>) and in-house scripts (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib39">Kutluay et al., 2014</xref>) were used to generate counts of each base in the viral genomes. Read density was calculated from the counts of each base divided by the total counts of bases mapped to the corresponding viral genome. Read density graphs were generated with GraphPad Prism 9 (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://www.graphpad.com/">https://www.graphpad.com/</ext-link>). The Ψ binding specificity was quantified by dividing the number of reads mapped in the Ψ region by the total number of reads that mapped to the viral genome.</p></sec><sec id="s4-4"><title>In vivo BMH crosslinking</title><p>The use of cysteine-specific crosslinker BMH to study CANC interactions in cells was based on earlier studies of CANC assembly in vitro (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib31">Hansen and Barklis, 1995</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib48">McDermott et al., 1996</xref>). In our study, the BMH crosslinking method was modified to study CANC interactions in cells. Specifically, 1 × 10<sup>6</sup> HEK293T cells were seeded in each well of a six-well plate 1 day prior to transfection. Then 2 μg of pCANC and variants thereof were transfected with PEI, and culture media was replaced with fresh media 7–10 hr after transfection. Cells were washed once with PBS 20–24 hr post-transfection and suspended with 1 ml PBS/EDTA (5 mM; cell density was around 2.5–3 × 10<sup>6</sup>/ml). Next, 200 μl cell suspension was used for BMH crosslinking whereby 5 μl of freshly dissolved BMH (40 mM stock in Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ThermoFisher 22330) was added to 200 µl cell suspension (final BMH concentration 1 mM) to start the crosslinking reaction. DMSO mock-treated reactions were simultaneously performed. The reactions were incubated in the dark at room temperature for 1 hr. Then, 7 μl 1 M Dithiothreitol (DTT) was added to the reactions for 15 min of incubation to stop the reactions. Next, 72 μl 4xNuPAGE LDS Sample Buffer (ThermoFisher NP0008) was added to the reaction followed by 15 min incubation. The samples were sonicated and heated at 72°C for 10 min before loading 20 μl/well on NuPAGE 3–8% Tris-Acetate gels (ThermoFisher, EA03785BOX) alongside high-molecular weight markers (ThermoFisher LC5699). The gel was run at 150 Volts for 60 min. Gels were transferred in the transfer buffer (ThermoFisher NP0006) with 20% ethanol at 35 Volts for 90 min to nitrocellulose membranes (Cytiva 10600002). After transfer, membranes were probed using a BlotCycler (Precision Biosystem) with mouse monoclonal anti-HIV-1 p24CA (183-H12-5C, NIH AIDS Reagent Program) primary antibody and custom rabbit polyclonal anti-HIV-1 NC primary antibody. IRDye 680RD Donkey anti-Mouse IgG Secondary Antibody (Licor P/N: 926–68072) and IRDye 800CW Donkey anti-Rabbit IgG Secondary Antibody (Licor P/N: 926–32213) were used for detection. Membranes were imaged at the Licor Odyssey imaging system.</p></sec><sec id="s4-5"><title>Virion production assay</title><p>HEK293T cells (3 × 10<sup>5</sup>) were seeded in each well of a 24-well plate. Proviral plasmids (1 μg HIV-1 NL4-3 wild type or CA mutant) were transfected with PEI the next day. Culture media was replaced with fresh media 1 day after transfection. At 40–48 hr after transfection, 600 µl virion supernatant from each sample was filtered with a 0.2 μm filter and gently placed above an equal volume of 20% sucrose/PBS cushion in a 1.5 ml Eppendorf tube. Virions were pelleted by centrifugation at 14,000 rpm for 1.5 hr at 4°C. Supernatant was removed and 50 μl 1× NuPAGE LDS Sample Buffer was added to lyse pelleted virions. Virion samples were heated 72°C for 10 min, and 15 μl virion lysate was loaded into each well of a NuPAGE 4–12% Bis-Tris gels (ThermoFisher NP0329BOX). For cell lysates, 200 μl 1× NuPAGE LDS Sample Buffer (ThermoFisher NP0008) were added to each well, sonicated, and heated at 72°C for 10 min before loading into the NuPAGE 4–12% Bis-Tris gels. Blotted membranes were probed with mouse monoclonal anti-HIV-1 p24CA (183-H12-5C, NIH AIDS Reagent Program) and rabbit anti-HSP90 Polyclonal antibody (Proteintech 13171–1-AP).</p></sec><sec id="s4-6"><title>Virion unspliced viral gRNA extraction and quantification</title><p>HEK293T cells (8 × 10<sup>5</sup>) were transfected with 2 μg HIV-1 NL4-3 proviral constructs or CA mutants thereof in six-well plates. Cells were washed with PBS once the following day, and culture media was replaced with fresh media. After around 40 hr, culture supernatants were filtered through a 0.45 μm filter and digested with 4 U Turbo Dnase I (ThermoFisher AM2238) for 40 min at 37°C. Then 900 µl filtered virion supernatant was pelleted through a sucrose cushion and resuspended in 120 μl PBS. Viral RNA was extracted from 60 μl of resuspended virions using the NucleoSpin Virus Kit (Macherey-Nagel 740983.50). Viral RNA from each sample was diluted 30-fold, and 3 μl was used in RT-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) reactions (0.1 μl total for each reaction). RNA levels were determined with Power SYBR Green RNA-to-CT 1-Step Kit (ThermoFisher 4389986) using a StepOne Plus Real-Time PCR system (Applied Biosystems). Serial 10-fold dilutions of known copy numbers of HIV-1 NL4-3 plasmid was used to generate a standard curve for quantification. The RT-qPCR primers for amplification of unspliced viral gRNA were <named-content content-type="sequence">GAGCTAGAACGATTCGCAGTTA</named-content> (forward) and <named-content content-type="sequence">CTGTCTGAAGGGATGGTTGTAG</named-content> (reverse).</p></sec><sec id="s4-7"><title>Materials availability statement</title><p>All novel materials generated herein are available on request from the authors.</p></sec></sec></body><back><sec sec-type="additional-information" id="s5"><title>Additional information</title><fn-group content-type="competing-interest"><title>Competing interests</title><fn fn-type="COI-statement" id="conf1"><p>No competing interests declared</p></fn><fn fn-type="COI-statement" id="conf2"><p>No competing interests declared</p></fn></fn-group><fn-group content-type="author-contribution"><title>Author contributions</title><fn fn-type="con" id="con1"><p>Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Writing - review and editing</p></fn><fn fn-type="con" id="con2"><p>Investigation, Methodology</p></fn><fn fn-type="con" id="con3"><p>Investigation, Methodology</p></fn><fn fn-type="con" id="con4"><p>Conceptualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Project administration, Writing - review and editing</p></fn></fn-group></sec><sec sec-type="supplementary-material" id="s6"><title>Additional files</title><supplementary-material id="mdar"><label>MDAR checklist</label><media xlink:href="elife-83548-mdarchecklist1-v2.docx" mimetype="application" mime-subtype="docx"/></supplementary-material></sec><sec sec-type="data-availability" id="s7"><title>Data availability</title><p>All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and accompanying source data files.</p></sec><ack id="ack"><title>Acknowledgements</title><p>We thank the staff of the Rockefeller University Genomics Resource Center for assistance and advice in the NGS sequencing of CLIP libraries. We thank Federico Comoglio, Ward Deboutte, Bert Vanmechelen, and Hugo Leonardo de Ávila (ORCID: 0000-0003-2739-003X) for their advice in CLIP data analysis. We thank Fengwen Zhang for the help in setting up the RT-qPCR assay. We thank members of the Bieniasz lab for helpful discussions. This work was supported by NIH grants R01AI50111 and U54 AI170660 to PDB. This article is subject to HHMI’s Open Access to Publications policy. HHMI lab heads have previously granted a nonexclusive CC BY 4.0 license to the public and a sublicensable license to HHMI in their research articles. Pursuant to those licenses, the author-accepted manuscript of this article can be made freely available under a CC BY 4.0 license immediately upon publication.</p></ack><ref-list><title>References</title><ref id="bib1"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Accola</surname><given-names>MA</given-names></name><name><surname>Höglund</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Göttlinger</surname><given-names>HG</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1998">1998</year><article-title>A putative alpha-helical structure which overlaps the capsid-p2 boundary in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gag precursor is crucial for viral particle assembly</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>72</volume><fpage>2072</fpage><lpage>2078</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.72.3.2072-2078.1998</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9499062</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib2"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Al Shamsi</surname><given-names>IR</given-names></name><name><surname>Al Dhaheri</surname><given-names>NS</given-names></name><name><surname>Phillip</surname><given-names>PS</given-names></name><name><surname>Mustafa</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Rizvi</surname><given-names>TA</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2011">2011</year><article-title>Reciprocal cross-packaging of primate lentiviral (HIV-1 and SIV) RNAs by heterologous non-lentiviral MPMV proteins</article-title><source>Virus Research</source><volume>155</volume><fpage>352</fpage><lpage>357</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.virusres.2010.09.018</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">20875467</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib3"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Aldovini</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Young</surname><given-names>RA</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1990">1990</year><article-title>Mutations of RNA and protein sequences involved in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 packaging result in production of noninfectious virus</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>64</volume><fpage>1920</fpage><lpage>1926</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.64.5.1920-1926.1990</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">2109098</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib4"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Bacharach</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name><name><surname>Goff</surname><given-names>SP</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1998">1998</year><article-title>Binding of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag protein to the viral RNA encapsidation signal in the yeast three-hybrid system</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>72</volume><fpage>6944</fpage><lpage>6949</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.72.8.6944-6949.1998</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9658151</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib5"><element-citation publication-type="book"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Berkowitz</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name><name><surname>Fisher</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Goff</surname><given-names>SP</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1996">1996</year><chapter-title>RNA packaging in</chapter-title><person-group person-group-type="editor"><name><surname>Kräusslich</surname><given-names>HG</given-names></name></person-group><source>Morphogenesis and Maturation of Retroviruses</source><publisher-loc>Berlin, Heidelberg</publisher-loc><publisher-name>Springer Berlin Heidelberg</publisher-name><fpage>177</fpage><lpage>218</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1007/978-3-642-80145-7_6</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib6"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>P</given-names></name><name><surname>Telesnitsky</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2018">2018</year><article-title>Multiple, switchable protein:RNA interactions regulate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 assembly</article-title><source>Annual Review of Virology</source><volume>5</volume><fpage>165</fpage><lpage>183</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1146/annurev-virology-092917-043448</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">30048218</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib7"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Bou-Nader</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Muecksch</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Brown</surname><given-names>JB</given-names></name><name><surname>Gordon</surname><given-names>JM</given-names></name><name><surname>York</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Peng</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Ghirlando</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>PD</given-names></name><name><surname>Zhang</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>HIV-1 matrix-trna complex structure reveals basis for host control of gag localization</article-title><source>Cell Host &amp; Microbe</source><volume>29</volume><fpage>1421</fpage><lpage>1436</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.chom.2021.07.006</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">34384537</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib8"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Carlson</surname><given-names>LA</given-names></name><name><surname>Bai</surname><given-names>Y</given-names></name><name><surname>Keane</surname><given-names>SC</given-names></name><name><surname>Doudna</surname><given-names>JA</given-names></name><name><surname>Hurley</surname><given-names>JH</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2016">2016</year><article-title>Reconstitution of selective HIV-1 RNA packaging in vitro by membrane-bound gag assemblies</article-title><source>eLife</source><volume>5</volume><elocation-id>14663</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.14663</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib9"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Clavel</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Orenstein</surname><given-names>JM</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1990">1990</year><article-title>A mutant of human immunodeficiency virus with reduced RNA packaging and abnormal particle morphology</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>64</volume><fpage>5230</fpage><lpage>5234</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.64.10.5230-5234.1990</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">2204725</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib10"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Clever</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Sassetti</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Parslow</surname><given-names>TG</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1995">1995</year><article-title>RNA secondary structure and binding sites for gag gene products in the 5’ packaging signal of human immunodeficiency virus type 1</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>69</volume><fpage>2101</fpage><lpage>2109</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.69.4.2101-2109.1995</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">7884856</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib11"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Clever</surname><given-names>JL</given-names></name><name><surname>Taplitz</surname><given-names>RA</given-names></name><name><surname>Lochrie</surname><given-names>MA</given-names></name><name><surname>Polisky</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Parslow</surname><given-names>TG</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2000">2000</year><article-title>A heterologous, high-affinity RNA ligand for human immunodeficiency virus Gag protein has RNA packaging activity</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>74</volume><fpage>541</fpage><lpage>546</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/jvi.74.1.541-546.2000</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">10590146</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib12"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Damgaard</surname><given-names>CK</given-names></name><name><surname>Dyhr-Mikkelsen</surname><given-names>H</given-names></name><name><surname>Kjems</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1998">1998</year><article-title>Mapping the RNA binding sites for human immunodeficiency virus type-1 Gag and NC proteins within the complete HIV-1 and -2 untranslated leader regions</article-title><source>Nucleic Acids Research</source><volume>26</volume><fpage>3667</fpage><lpage>3676</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/nar/26.16.3667</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9685481</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib13"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Darlix</surname><given-names>JL</given-names></name><name><surname>Gabus</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Nugeyre</surname><given-names>MT</given-names></name><name><surname>Clavel</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Barré-Sinoussi</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1990">1990</year><article-title>Cis elements and trans-acting factors involved in the RNA dimerization of the human immunodeficiency virus HIV-1</article-title><source>Journal of Molecular Biology</source><volume>216</volume><fpage>689</fpage><lpage>699</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/0022-2836(90)90392-Y</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">2124274</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib14"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Datta</surname><given-names>SAK</given-names></name><name><surname>Temeselew</surname><given-names>LG</given-names></name><name><surname>Crist</surname><given-names>RM</given-names></name><name><surname>Soheilian</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Kamata</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Mirro</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Harvin</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Nagashima</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Cachau</surname><given-names>RE</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2011">2011</year><article-title>On the role of the Sp1 domain in HIV-1 particle assembly: a molecular switch?</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>85</volume><fpage>4111</fpage><lpage>4121</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.00006-11</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">21325421</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib15"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Dewson</surname><given-names>G</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2015">2015</year><article-title>Investigating the oligomerization of Bak and Bax during apoptosis by cysteine linkage</article-title><source>Cold Spring Harbor Protocols</source><volume>2015</volume><fpage>481</fpage><lpage>484</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1101/pdb.prot086470</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">25934939</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib16"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Dick</surname><given-names>RA</given-names></name><name><surname>Zadrozny</surname><given-names>KK</given-names></name><name><surname>Xu</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Schur</surname><given-names>FKM</given-names></name><name><surname>Lyddon</surname><given-names>TD</given-names></name><name><surname>Ricana</surname><given-names>CL</given-names></name><name><surname>Wagner</surname><given-names>JM</given-names></name><name><surname>Perilla</surname><given-names>JR</given-names></name><name><surname>Ganser-Pornillos</surname><given-names>BK</given-names></name><name><surname>Johnson</surname><given-names>MC</given-names></name><name><surname>Pornillos</surname><given-names>O</given-names></name><name><surname>Vogt</surname><given-names>VM</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2018">2018</year><article-title>Inositol phosphates are assembly co-factors for HIV-1</article-title><source>Nature</source><volume>560</volume><fpage>509</fpage><lpage>512</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/s41586-018-0396-4</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">30069050</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib17"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Didierlaurent</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Racine</surname><given-names>PJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Houzet</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Chamontin</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Berkhout</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Mougel</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2011">2011</year><article-title>Role of HIV-1 RNA and protein determinants for the selective packaging of spliced and unspliced viral RNA and host U6 and 7SL RNA in virus particles</article-title><source>Nucleic Acids Research</source><volume>39</volume><fpage>8915</fpage><lpage>8927</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/nar/gkr577</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">21791531</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib18"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ding</surname><given-names>P</given-names></name><name><surname>Kharytonchyk</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Waller</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Mbaekwe</surname><given-names>U</given-names></name><name><surname>Basappa</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Kuo</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Frank</surname><given-names>HM</given-names></name><name><surname>Quasney</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Kidane</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Swanson</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Van</surname><given-names>V</given-names></name><name><surname>Sarkar</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Cannistraci</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name><name><surname>Chaudhary</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name><name><surname>Flores</surname><given-names>H</given-names></name><name><surname>Telesnitsky</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2020">2020</year><article-title>Identification of the initial nucleocapsid recognition element in the HIV-1 RNA packaging signal</article-title><source>PNAS</source><volume>117</volume><fpage>17737</fpage><lpage>17746</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1073/pnas.2008519117</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib19"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ding</surname><given-names>P</given-names></name><name><surname>Kharytonchyk</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Kuo</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Cannistraci</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name><name><surname>Flores</surname><given-names>H</given-names></name><name><surname>Chaudhary</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name><name><surname>Sarkar</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Dong</surname><given-names>X</given-names></name><name><surname>Telesnitsky</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>5’-cap sequestration is an essential determinant of HIV-1 genome packaging</article-title><source>PNAS</source><volume>118</volume><elocation-id>e2112475118</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1073/pnas.2112475118</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">34493679</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib20"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Dorfman</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Luban</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Goff</surname><given-names>SP</given-names></name><name><surname>Haseltine</surname><given-names>WA</given-names></name><name><surname>Göttlinger</surname><given-names>HG</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1993">1993</year><article-title>Mapping of functionally important residues of a cysteine-histidine box in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nucleocapsid protein</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>67</volume><fpage>6159</fpage><lpage>6169</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.67.10.6159-6169.1993</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8371356</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib21"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>D’Souza</surname><given-names>V</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2005">2005</year><article-title>How retroviruses select their genomes</article-title><source>Nature Reviews. Microbiology</source><volume>3</volume><fpage>643</fpage><lpage>655</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/nrmicro1210</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">16064056</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib22"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>D’Souza</surname><given-names>AR</given-names></name><name><surname>Jayaraman</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Long</surname><given-names>Z</given-names></name><name><surname>Zeng</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Prestwood</surname><given-names>LJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Chan</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Kappei</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Lever</surname><given-names>AML</given-names></name><name><surname>Kenyon</surname><given-names>JC</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>Hiv-1 packaging visualised by in-gel shape</article-title><source>Viruses</source><volume>13</volume><elocation-id>2389</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3390/v13122389</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">34960658</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib23"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Duchon</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Santos</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Chen</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Brown</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Nikolaitchik</surname><given-names>OA</given-names></name><name><surname>Tai</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Chao</surname><given-names>JA</given-names></name><name><surname>Freed</surname><given-names>EO</given-names></name><name><surname>Pathak</surname><given-names>VK</given-names></name><name><surname>Hu</surname><given-names>WS</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>Plasma membrane anchoring and Gag: Gag multimerization on viral RNA are critical properties of HIV-1 Gag required to mediate efficient genome packaging</article-title><source>MBio</source><volume>12</volume><elocation-id>e0325421</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/mbio.03254-21</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">34872357</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib24"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Forshey</surname><given-names>BM</given-names></name><name><surname>von Schwedler</surname><given-names>U</given-names></name><name><surname>Sundquist</surname><given-names>WI</given-names></name><name><surname>Aiken</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2002">2002</year><article-title>Formation of a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 core of optimal stability is crucial for viral replication</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>76</volume><fpage>5667</fpage><lpage>5677</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/jvi.76.11.5667-5677.2002</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">11991995</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib25"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Franke</surname><given-names>EK</given-names></name><name><surname>Yuan</surname><given-names>HE</given-names></name><name><surname>Bossolt</surname><given-names>KL</given-names></name><name><surname>Goff</surname><given-names>SP</given-names></name><name><surname>Luban</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1994">1994</year><article-title>Specificity and sequence requirements for interactions between various retroviral Gag proteins</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>68</volume><fpage>5300</fpage><lpage>5305</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.68.8.5300-5305.1994</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8035530</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib26"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Ganser-Pornillos</surname><given-names>BK</given-names></name><name><surname>von</surname><given-names>UK</given-names></name><name><surname>Stray</surname><given-names>KM</given-names></name><name><surname>Aiken</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Sundquist</surname><given-names>WI</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2004">2004</year><article-title>Assembly properties of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 CA protein</article-title><source>J Virol</source><volume>78</volume><fpage>2545</fpage><lpage>2552</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/jvi.78.5.2545-2552.2004</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib27"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Gorelick</surname><given-names>RJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Nigida</surname><given-names>SM</given-names></name><name><surname>Bess</surname><given-names>JW</given-names></name><name><surname>Arthur</surname><given-names>LO</given-names></name><name><surname>Henderson</surname><given-names>LE</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1990">1990</year><article-title>Noninfectious human immunodeficiency virus type 1 mutants deficient in genomic RNA</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>64</volume><fpage>3207</fpage><lpage>3211</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.64.7.3207-3211.1990</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">2191147</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib28"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Grime</surname><given-names>JMA</given-names></name><name><surname>Voth</surname><given-names>GA</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2012">2012</year><article-title>Early stages of the HIV-1 capsid protein lattice formation</article-title><source>Biophysical Journal</source><volume>103</volume><fpage>1774</fpage><lpage>1783</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.bpj.2012.09.007</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">23083721</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib29"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Guo</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Yao</surname><given-names>X</given-names></name><name><surname>Wang</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Wang</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Wang</surname><given-names>Y</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2020">2020</year><article-title>Comparison of HIV-1 gag and ncp7 in their selectivity for package signal, affinity for stem-loop 3, and zn<sup>2+</sup> content</article-title><source>Biochimie</source><volume>179</volume><fpage>135</fpage><lpage>145</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.biochi.2020.09.024</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">32987107</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib30"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Hafner</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Landthaler</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Burger</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Khorshid</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Hausser</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Berninger</surname><given-names>P</given-names></name><name><surname>Rothballer</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Ascano</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Jungkamp</surname><given-names>AC</given-names></name><name><surname>Munschauer</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Ulrich</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Wardle</surname><given-names>GS</given-names></name><name><surname>Dewell</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Zavolan</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Tuschl</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2010">2010</year><article-title>Transcriptome-wide identification of RNA-binding protein and microrna target sites by PAR-CLIP</article-title><source>Cell</source><volume>141</volume><fpage>129</fpage><lpage>141</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.cell.2010.03.009</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">20371350</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib31"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Hansen</surname><given-names>MS</given-names></name><name><surname>Barklis</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1995">1995</year><article-title>Structural interactions between retroviral gag proteins examined by cysteine cross-linking</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>69</volume><fpage>1150</fpage><lpage>1159</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.69.2.1150-1159.1995</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">7815493</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib32"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Harbury</surname><given-names>PB</given-names></name><name><surname>Kim</surname><given-names>PS</given-names></name><name><surname>Alber</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1994">1994</year><article-title>Crystal structure of an isoleucine-zipper trimer</article-title><source>Nature</source><volume>371</volume><fpage>80</fpage><lpage>83</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/371080a0</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8072533</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib33"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Hendrix</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Baumgärtel</surname><given-names>V</given-names></name><name><surname>Schrimpf</surname><given-names>W</given-names></name><name><surname>Ivanchenko</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Digman</surname><given-names>MA</given-names></name><name><surname>Gratton</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name><name><surname>Kräusslich</surname><given-names>HG</given-names></name><name><surname>Müller</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Lamb</surname><given-names>DC</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2015">2015</year><article-title>Live-cell observation of cytosolic HIV-1 assembly onset reveals RNA-interacting gag oligomers</article-title><source>The Journal of Cell Biology</source><volume>210</volume><fpage>629</fpage><lpage>646</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1083/jcb.201504006</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">26283800</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib34"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Jouvenet</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Simon</surname><given-names>SM</given-names></name><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>PD</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2009">2009</year><article-title>Imaging the interaction of HIV-1 genomes and gag during assembly of individual viral particles</article-title><source>PNAS</source><volume>106</volume><fpage>19114</fpage><lpage>19119</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1073/pnas.0907364106</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib35"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Keane</surname><given-names>SC</given-names></name><name><surname>Heng</surname><given-names>X</given-names></name><name><surname>Lu</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Kharytonchyk</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Ramakrishnan</surname><given-names>V</given-names></name><name><surname>Carter</surname><given-names>G</given-names></name><name><surname>Barton</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Hosic</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Florwick</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Santos</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Bolden</surname><given-names>NC</given-names></name><name><surname>McCowin</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Case</surname><given-names>DA</given-names></name><name><surname>Johnson</surname><given-names>BA</given-names></name><name><surname>Salemi</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Telesnitsky</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2015">2015</year><article-title>RNA structure: structure of the HIV-1 RNA packaging signal</article-title><source>Science</source><volume>348</volume><fpage>917</fpage><lpage>921</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1126/science.aaa9266</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">25999508</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib36"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Kenyon</surname><given-names>JC</given-names></name><name><surname>Prestwood</surname><given-names>LJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Lever</surname><given-names>AML</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2015">2015</year><article-title>A novel combined RNA-protein interaction analysis distinguishes HIV-1 gag protein binding sites from structural change in the viral RNA leader</article-title><source>Sci Rep</source><volume>5</volume><elocation-id>14369</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/srep14369</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib37"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Kroupa</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Datta</surname><given-names>SAK</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2020">2020</year><article-title>Distinct contributions of different domains within the HIV-1 gag polyprotein to specific and nonspecific interactions with RNA</article-title><source>Viruses</source><volume>12</volume><elocation-id>394</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3390/v12040394</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">32252233</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib38"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Kutluay</surname><given-names>SB</given-names></name><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>PD</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2010">2010</year><article-title>Analysis of the initiating events in HIV-1 particle assembly and genome packaging</article-title><source>PLOS Pathog</source><volume>6</volume><elocation-id>e1001200</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1371/journal.ppat.1001200</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib39"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Kutluay</surname><given-names>SB</given-names></name><name><surname>Zang</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Blanco-Melo</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Powell</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Jannain</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Errando</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>PD</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2014">2014</year><article-title>Global changes in the RNA binding specificity of HIV-1 gag regulate virion genesis</article-title><source>Cell</source><volume>159</volume><fpage>1096</fpage><lpage>1109</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.cell.2014.09.057</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib40"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Langmead</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Trapnell</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Pop</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Salzberg</surname><given-names>SL</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2009">2009</year><article-title>Ultrafast and memory-efficient alignment of short DNA sequences to the human genome</article-title><source>Genome Biol</source><volume>10</volume><elocation-id>R25</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1186/gb-2009-10-3-r25</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib41"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Lever</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Gottlinger</surname><given-names>H</given-names></name><name><surname>Haseltine</surname><given-names>W</given-names></name><name><surname>Sodroski</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1989">1989</year><article-title>Identification of a sequence required for efficient packaging of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA into virions</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>63</volume><fpage>4085</fpage><lpage>4087</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.63.9.4085-4087.1989</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">2760989</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib42"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Li</surname><given-names>H</given-names></name><name><surname>Handsaker</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Wysoker</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Fennell</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Ruan</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Homer</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Marth</surname><given-names>G</given-names></name><name><surname>Abecasis</surname><given-names>G</given-names></name><name><surname>Durbin</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2009">2009</year><article-title>Genome project data processing subgroup. 2009. the sequence alignment/map format and samtools</article-title><source>Bioinformatics</source><volume>25</volume><fpage>2078</fpage><lpage>2079</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/bioinformatics/btp352</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib43"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Liang</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Hu</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Russell</surname><given-names>RS</given-names></name><name><surname>Roldan</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Kleiman</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Wainberg</surname><given-names>MA</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2002">2002</year><article-title>Characterization of a putative alpha-helix across the capsid-SP1 boundary that is critical for the multimerization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>76</volume><fpage>11729</fpage><lpage>11737</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/jvi.76.22.11729-11737.2002</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">12388733</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib44"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Liu</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Zheng</surname><given-names>Q</given-names></name><name><surname>Deng</surname><given-names>Y</given-names></name><name><surname>Cheng</surname><given-names>CS</given-names></name><name><surname>Kallenbach</surname><given-names>NR</given-names></name><name><surname>Lu</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2006">2006</year><article-title>A seven-helix coiled coil</article-title><source>PNAS</source><volume>103</volume><fpage>15457</fpage><lpage>15462</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1073/pnas.0604871103</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">17030805</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib45"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Lu</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Heng</surname><given-names>X</given-names></name><name><surname>Garyu</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Monti</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Garcia</surname><given-names>EL</given-names></name><name><surname>Kharytonchyk</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Dorjsuren</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Kulandaivel</surname><given-names>G</given-names></name><name><surname>Jones</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Hiremath</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Divakaruni</surname><given-names>SS</given-names></name><name><surname>LaCotti</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Barton</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Tummillo</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Hosic</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Edme</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Albrecht</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Telesnitsky</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Summers</surname><given-names>MF</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2011">2011</year><article-title>Nmr detection of structures in the HIV-1 5’-leader RNA that regulate genome packaging</article-title><source>Science</source><volume>334</volume><fpage>242</fpage><lpage>245</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1126/science.1210460</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">21998393</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib46"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Mallery</surname><given-names>DL</given-names></name><name><surname>Kleinpeter</surname><given-names>AB</given-names></name><name><surname>Renner</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Faysal</surname><given-names>KMR</given-names></name><name><surname>Novikova</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Kiss</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Wilson</surname><given-names>MSC</given-names></name><name><surname>Ahsan</surname><given-names>B</given-names></name><name><surname>Ke</surname><given-names>Z</given-names></name><name><surname>Briggs</surname><given-names>JAG</given-names></name><name><surname>Saiardi</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Böcking</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Freed</surname><given-names>EO</given-names></name><name><surname>James</surname><given-names>LC</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>A stable immature lattice packages IP6 for HIV capsid maturation</article-title><source>Science Advances</source><volume>7</volume><elocation-id>4716</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1126/sciadv.abe4716</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib47"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Martin</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2011">2011</year><article-title>Cutadapt removes adapter sequences from high-throughput sequencing reads</article-title><source>EMBnet.Journal</source><volume>17</volume><elocation-id>10</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.14806/ej.17.1.200</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib48"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>McDermott</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Farrell</surname><given-names>L</given-names></name><name><surname>Ross</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name><name><surname>Barklis</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1996">1996</year><article-title>Structural analysis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gag protein interactions, using cysteine-specific reagents</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>70</volume><fpage>5106</fpage><lpage>5114</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.70.8.5106-5114.1996</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8764018</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib49"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Motomura</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Chen</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Hu</surname><given-names>WS</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2008">2008</year><article-title>Genetic recombination between human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2, two distinct human lentiviruses</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>82</volume><fpage>1923</fpage><lpage>1933</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.01937-07</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">18057256</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib50"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>O’Carroll</surname><given-names>IP</given-names></name><name><surname>Crist</surname><given-names>RM</given-names></name><name><surname>Mirro</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Harvin</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Soheilian</surname><given-names>F</given-names></name><name><surname>Kamata</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Nagashima</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2012">2012</year><article-title>Functional redundancy in HIV-1 viral particle assembly</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>86</volume><fpage>12991</fpage><lpage>12996</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.06287-11</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">22993163</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib51"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Pornillos</surname><given-names>O</given-names></name><name><surname>Ganser-Pornillos</surname><given-names>BK</given-names></name><name><surname>Kelly</surname><given-names>BN</given-names></name><name><surname>Hua</surname><given-names>Y</given-names></name><name><surname>Whitby</surname><given-names>FG</given-names></name><name><surname>Stout</surname><given-names>CD</given-names></name><name><surname>Sundquist</surname><given-names>WI</given-names></name><name><surname>Hill</surname><given-names>CP</given-names></name><name><surname>Yeager</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2009">2009</year><article-title>X-Ray structures of the hexameric building block of the HIV capsid</article-title><source>Cell</source><volume>137</volume><fpage>1282</fpage><lpage>1292</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.cell.2009.04.063</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">19523676</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib52"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Poston</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Zang</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Bieniasz</surname><given-names>P</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2021">2021</year><article-title>Derivation and characterization of an HIV-1 mutant that rescues IP6 binding deficiency</article-title><source>Retrovirology</source><volume>18</volume><elocation-id>25</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1186/s12977-021-00571-3</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">34454514</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib53"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Rizvi</surname><given-names>TA</given-names></name><name><surname>Panganiban</surname><given-names>AT</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1993">1993</year><article-title>Simian immunodeficiency virus RNA is efficiently encapsidated by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particles</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>67</volume><fpage>2681</fpage><lpage>2688</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.67.5.2681-2688.1993</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">8474168</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib54"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Rulli</surname><given-names>SJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Hibbert</surname><given-names>CS</given-names></name><name><surname>Mirro</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Pederson</surname><given-names>T</given-names></name><name><surname>Biswal</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2007">2007</year><article-title>Selective and nonselective packaging of cellular RNAs in retrovirus particles</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>81</volume><fpage>6623</fpage><lpage>6631</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/JVI.02833-06</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">17392359</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib55"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Schur</surname><given-names>FKM</given-names></name><name><surname>Obr</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Hagen</surname><given-names>WJH</given-names></name><name><surname>Wan</surname><given-names>W</given-names></name><name><surname>Jakobi</surname><given-names>AJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Kirkpatrick</surname><given-names>JM</given-names></name><name><surname>Sachse</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Kräusslich</surname><given-names>HG</given-names></name><name><surname>Briggs</surname><given-names>JAG</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2016">2016</year><article-title>An atomic model of HIV-1 capsid-SP1 reveals structures regulating assembly and maturation</article-title><source>Science</source><volume>353</volume><fpage>506</fpage><lpage>508</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1126/science.aaf9620</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">27417497</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib56"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Shema Mugisha</surname><given-names>C</given-names></name><name><surname>Tenneti</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name><name><surname>Kutluay</surname><given-names>SB</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2020">2020</year><article-title>Clip for studying protein-RNA interactions that regulate virus replication</article-title><source>Methods</source><volume>183</volume><fpage>84</fpage><lpage>92</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1016/j.ymeth.2019.11.011</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">31765715</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib57"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Thomson</surname><given-names>AR</given-names></name><name><surname>Wood</surname><given-names>CW</given-names></name><name><surname>Burton</surname><given-names>AJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Bartlett</surname><given-names>GJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Sessions</surname><given-names>RB</given-names></name><name><surname>Brady</surname><given-names>RL</given-names></name><name><surname>Woolfson</surname><given-names>DN</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2014">2014</year><article-title>Computational design of water-soluble α-helical barrels</article-title><source>Science</source><volume>346</volume><fpage>485</fpage><lpage>488</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1126/science.1257452</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">25342807</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib58"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Tomasini</surname><given-names>MD</given-names></name><name><surname>Johnson</surname><given-names>DS</given-names></name><name><surname>Mincer</surname><given-names>JS</given-names></name><name><surname>Simon</surname><given-names>SM</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2018">2018</year><article-title>Modeling the dynamics and kinetics of HIV-1 gag during viral assembly</article-title><source>PLOS ONE</source><volume>13</volume><elocation-id>e0196133</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1371/journal.pone.0196133</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib59"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Tsiang</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Niedziela-Majka</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Hung</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Jin</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Hu</surname><given-names>E</given-names></name><name><surname>Yant</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Samuel</surname><given-names>D</given-names></name><name><surname>Liu</surname><given-names>X</given-names></name><name><surname>Sakowicz</surname><given-names>R</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2012">2012</year><article-title>A trimer of dimers is the basic building block for human immunodeficiency virus-1 capsid assembly</article-title><source>Biochemistry</source><volume>51</volume><fpage>4416</fpage><lpage>4428</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1021/bi300052h</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">22564075</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib60"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>von Schwedler</surname><given-names>UK</given-names></name><name><surname>Stemmler</surname><given-names>TL</given-names></name><name><surname>Klishko</surname><given-names>VY</given-names></name><name><surname>Li</surname><given-names>S</given-names></name><name><surname>Albertine</surname><given-names>KH</given-names></name><name><surname>Davis</surname><given-names>DR</given-names></name><name><surname>Sundquist</surname><given-names>WI</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="1998">1998</year><article-title>Proteolytic refolding of the HIV-1 capsid protein amino-terminus facilitates viral core assembly</article-title><source>EMBO J</source><volume>17</volume><fpage>1555</fpage><lpage>1568</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/emboj/17.6.1555</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib61"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>von Schwedler</surname><given-names>UK</given-names></name><name><surname>Stray</surname><given-names>KM</given-names></name><name><surname>Garrus</surname><given-names>JE</given-names></name><name><surname>Sundquist</surname><given-names>WI</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2003">2003</year><article-title>Functional surfaces of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 capsid protein</article-title><source>Journal of Virology</source><volume>77</volume><fpage>5439</fpage><lpage>5450</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1128/jvi.77.9.5439-5450.2003</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">12692245</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib62"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Wagner</surname><given-names>JM</given-names></name><name><surname>Zadrozny</surname><given-names>KK</given-names></name><name><surname>Chrustowicz</surname><given-names>J</given-names></name><name><surname>Purdy</surname><given-names>MD</given-names></name><name><surname>Yeager</surname><given-names>M</given-names></name><name><surname>Ganser-Pornillos</surname><given-names>BK</given-names></name><name><surname>Pornillos</surname><given-names>O</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2016">2016</year><article-title>Crystal structure of an HIV assembly and maturation switch</article-title><source>eLife</source><volume>5</volume><elocation-id>e17063</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.17063</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">27416583</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib63"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Webb</surname><given-names>JA</given-names></name><name><surname>Jones</surname><given-names>CP</given-names></name><name><surname>Parent</surname><given-names>LJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Rouzina</surname><given-names>I</given-names></name><name><surname>Musier-Forsyth</surname><given-names>K</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2013">2013</year><article-title>Distinct binding interactions of HIV-1 gag to psi and non-psi rnas: implications for viral genomic RNA packaging</article-title><source>RNA</source><volume>19</volume><fpage>1078</fpage><lpage>1088</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1261/rna.038869.113</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">23798665</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib64"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Wilkinson</surname><given-names>KA</given-names></name><name><surname>Gorelick</surname><given-names>RJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Vasa</surname><given-names>SM</given-names></name><name><surname>Guex</surname><given-names>N</given-names></name><name><surname>Rein</surname><given-names>A</given-names></name><name><surname>Mathews</surname><given-names>DH</given-names></name><name><surname>Giddings</surname><given-names>MC</given-names></name><name><surname>Weeks</surname><given-names>KM</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2008">2008</year><article-title>High-throughput shape analysis reveals structures in HIV-1 genomic RNA strongly conserved across distinct biological states</article-title><source>PLOS Biology</source><volume>6</volume><elocation-id>e96</elocation-id><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1371/journal.pbio.0060096</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">18447581</pub-id></element-citation></ref><ref id="bib65"><element-citation publication-type="journal"><person-group person-group-type="author"><name><surname>Zarnegar</surname><given-names>BJ</given-names></name><name><surname>Flynn</surname><given-names>RA</given-names></name><name><surname>Shen</surname><given-names>Y</given-names></name><name><surname>Do</surname><given-names>BT</given-names></name><name><surname>Chang</surname><given-names>HY</given-names></name><name><surname>Khavari</surname><given-names>PA</given-names></name></person-group><year iso-8601-date="2016">2016</year><article-title>IrCLIP platform for efficient characterization of protein-RNA interactions</article-title><source>Nature Methods</source><volume>13</volume><fpage>489</fpage><lpage>492</lpage><pub-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1038/nmeth.3840</pub-id><pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">27111506</pub-id></element-citation></ref></ref-list></back><sub-article article-type="editor-report" id="sa0"><front-stub><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.83548.sa0</article-id><title-group><article-title>Editor's evaluation</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Gao</surname><given-names>Guangxia</given-names></name><role specific-use="editor">Reviewing Editor</role><aff><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/01tyv8576</institution-id><institution>Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences</institution></institution-wrap><country>China</country></aff></contrib></contrib-group><related-object id="sa0ro1" object-id-type="id" object-id="10.1101/2022.10.06.511082" link-type="continued-by" xlink:href="https://sciety.org/articles/activity/10.1101/2022.10.06.511082"/></front-stub><body><p>This work presents valuable findings that advance our understanding of the roles of the CA domain in specific binding of HIV-1 Gag to the viral genomic RNA. The compelling evidence obtained using the modified CLIP-seq and chemical crosslinking approaches support the authors' conclusion that the initial Gag lattice formation mediated by CA is essential for Gag recognition of the 5' Ψ sequence. This work will be of interest to virologists working on gRNA packaging of not only HIV-1 but also other RNA viruses.</p></body></sub-article><sub-article article-type="decision-letter" id="sa1"><front-stub><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.83548.sa1</article-id><title-group><article-title>Decision letter</article-title></title-group><contrib-group content-type="section"><contrib contrib-type="editor"><name><surname>Gao</surname><given-names>Guangxia</given-names></name><role>Reviewing Editor</role><aff><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/01tyv8576</institution-id><institution>Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences</institution></institution-wrap><country>China</country></aff></contrib></contrib-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="reviewer"><name><surname>Kenyon</surname><given-names>Julia C</given-names></name><role>Reviewer</role><aff><institution-wrap><institution-id institution-id-type="ror">https://ror.org/013meh722</institution-id><institution>University of Cambridge</institution></institution-wrap><country>United Kingdom</country></aff></contrib></contrib-group></front-stub><body><boxed-text id="sa2-box1"><p>Our editorial process produces two outputs: (i) <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://sciety.org/articles/activity/10.1101/2022.10.06.511082">public reviews</ext-link> designed to be posted alongside <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.06.511082v1">the preprint</ext-link> for the benefit of readers; (ii) feedback on the manuscript for the authors, including requests for revisions, shown below. We also include an acceptance summary that explains what the editors found interesting or important about the work.</p></boxed-text><p><bold>Decision letter after peer review:</bold></p><p>Thank you for submitting your article &quot;Initiation of HIV-1 Gag lattice assembly is required for cytoplasmic recognition of the viral genome packaging signal&quot; for consideration by <italic>eLife</italic>. Your article has been reviewed by 3 peer reviewers, one of whom is a member of our Board of Reviewing Editors, and the evaluation has been overseen by Sara Sawyer as the Senior Editor. The following individual involved in review of your submission has agreed to reveal their identity: Julia C Kenyon (Reviewer #3).</p><p>The reviewers have discussed their reviews with one another, and the Reviewing Editor has drafted this to help you prepare a revised submission.</p><p>Essential revisions:</p><p>1) Figure 2. Considering that Gag concentration within the cytosol may affect its binding kinetics, both with itself and with the RNA and that the mutations may affect the stability of the proteins, the expression levels of these proteins need to be measured.</p><p>2) Figure 4. Some CA mutants, such as E28A/E29A, Q219A and R229A, produced measurable amounts of virion particles, but their Psi binding ability was reduced. The RNA/Gag ratios of these mutants should be measured to address the concern whether the initial Gag binding to Psi dictates RNA packaging and thus strengthen the paper.</p><p><italic>Reviewer #1 (Recommendations for the authors):</italic></p><p>1. Figure 2B. Since the mutations may affect the stability of the proteins, the expression levels of these proteins should be measured. Different levels of the proteins may affect the binding specificity of the proteins to target RNA.</p><p>2. Figure 4. Some CA mutants, such as E28A/E29A, Q219A and R229A, produced measurable amounts of virion particles, but their Psi binding ability was reduced. Measuring the RNA/Gag ratios of these mutants would help to address the concern whether the initial Gag binding to Psi of these mutants dictates RNA packaging and thus strengthen the paper.</p><p>3. The manuscript should be double checked for typos (for example, &quot;lost the ability to specific bind to Ψ&quot; in the Summary).</p><p><italic>Reviewer #2 (Recommendations for the authors):</italic></p><p>1. Please provide a quantitative analysis of the crosslinking data shown in Figures 2C, 4A, and 5A (e.g., the band intensity of monomer, dimer, 3-6x, and 8/10x). Please see the comment #3 below.</p><p>2. Please provide a quantitative analysis of the virus particle production experiment shown in Figure 4 supplement 1. The Gag amounts in cell lysates vary substantially between Gag mutants, which may contribute to the difference in the virion release. In that case, the virion release defect observed with some CA mutants may be due to the Gag instability rather than disruption of CA-CA interfaces.</p><p>3. Figure 2C and Figure 4A. Chimeric Gag proteins, e.g., ccHex2-SP1-NC, formed up to hexamer, but CANC formed higher order multimers (i.e., 8x and 10x). Therefore, it is possible that the chimeric NC proteins failed to bind the Ψ element due to the lack of higher order multimers. Consistent with this possibility, some CANC mutants, which appear to this reviewer to show a defect in higher order multimerization but not dimer formation, e.g., R100A/S102A, T107A/T108A, and T110A/Q112A, fail to bind the Ψ element.</p><p>4. Discussion, second paragraph: The authors suggest that the basic building block of a Gag lattice is a Gag dimer, not a Gag hexamer. This is not consistent with the crosslinking data that appear to show no accumulation of Gag dimer when the CA trimer or hexamer interface is disrupted. It also contradicts the last sentence in the same paragraph.</p><p>5. Duchon et al. (2021) reported that in addition to the CA-CA dimer interface, the ability to bind membrane is necessary for a Gag molecule to recruit viral RNA to assembling particles (i.e., packaging). In this regard, it is interesting that the current study, which focuses on an earlier step, showed that specific recognition of viral RNA does not require membrane binding of Gag but still requires CA-CA interactions. It would be helpful for readers if the authors discuss the difference between this study and the study by Duchon et al. and suggest an integrated model about the sequence of the events.</p><p>6. Discussion, first sentence: The authors concluded that &quot;the initiation of the assembly of the immature HIV-1 Gag lattice in the cytosol of infected cells is required for the specific initial interaction between Gag/CANC and the Ψ element of the gRNA&quot;. This statement may be misconstrued as suggesting that a small-scale lattice must pre-exist for the Gag-gRNA interaction. Strictly speaking, the data showed the need for the ability of Gag to form a Gag lattice, which may occur upon the initial (and otherwise transient) NC-Ψ element interaction.</p></body></sub-article><sub-article article-type="reply" id="sa2"><front-stub><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7554/eLife.83548.sa2</article-id><title-group><article-title>Author response</article-title></title-group></front-stub><body><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>Reviewer #1 (Recommendations for the authors):</p><p>1. Figure 2B. Since the mutations may affect the stability of the proteins, the expression levels of these proteins should be measured. Different levels of the proteins may affect the binding specificity of the proteins to target RNA.</p></disp-quote><p>In the revised manuscript we’ve included quantitative western blot analyses of the expression levels of these proteins (Figure 2 Figure-supplement 2)</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>2. Figure 4. Some CA mutants, such as E28A/E29A, Q219A and R229A, produced measurable amounts of virion particles, but their Psi binding ability was reduced. Measuring the RNA/Gag ratios of these mutants would help to address the concern whether the initial Gag binding to Psi of these mutants dictates RNA packaging and thus strengthen the paper.</p></disp-quote><p>In the revised manuscript we measured the vRNA:Gag ratio for all the CA mutants that generated some level of extracellular particles (Figure 4 Figure-supplement 4). We were initially surprised to find that there were only minor variations in the vRNA:Gag ratios for these mutants. However, given that these mutants generated extracellular virions, they must, by definition, have been able to assemble. An essential step in assembly is the generation of an immature Gag lattice. Thus, these mutant full-length Gag proteins must have assembled an immature Gag lattice despite the fact that the CA-NC proteins do not appear to assemble into higher order multimers in the cytosol. We posit that the CA mutants that generate virions in the context of full length virus but do not generate high order CA-NC multimers in the cytosol harbour partial defects in immature lattice formation that are evident in the context of CA-NC in the cytosol, but are at least partly suppressed when Gag is targeted to membrane in the context of a full length Gag protein. This notion is consistent with a notion proposed by O’Caroll et al. (PMID 22993163), who invoke functional redundancy between membrane binding, CA-CA interaction and RNA binding in driving HIV-1 particle assembly. Notably, these results do not alter the interpretation that immature lattice assembly is required for psi binding, but do suggest that immature lattice assembly can occur either in the cytosol or at the plasma membrane in order to enable psi recognition. We have altered the text of the revised manuscript to reflect these ideas.</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>3. The manuscript should be double checked for typos (for example, &quot;lost the ability to specific bind to Ψ&quot; in the Summary).</p></disp-quote><p>We have checked the manuscript a thoroughly as we can for typos</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>Reviewer #2 (Recommendations for the authors):</p><p>1. Please provide a quantitative analysis of the crosslinking data shown in Figures 2C, 4A, and 5A (e.g., the band intensity of monomer, dimer, 3-6x, and 8/10x). Please see the comment #3 below.</p></disp-quote><p>We have included densitometric line scans of these gels as figure supplements in the revised manuscript (See Figure 2—figure supplement 3, Figure 4—figure supplement 1, Figure 5—figure supplement 1)</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>2. Please provide a quantitative analysis of the virus particle production experiment shown in Figure 4 supplement 1. The Gag amounts in cell lysates vary substantially between Gag mutants, which may contribute to the difference in the virion release. In that case, the virion release defect observed with some CA mutants may be due to the Gag instability rather than disruption of CA-CA interfaces.</p></disp-quote><p>We have included this analysis in the revised manuscript (in the revised Figure 4—figure supplement 2.)</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>3. Figure 2C and Figure 4A. Chimeric Gag proteins, e.g., ccHex2-SP1-NC, formed up to hexamer, but CANC formed higher order multimers (i.e., 8x and 10x). Therefore, it is possible that the chimeric NC proteins failed to bind the Ψ element due to the lack of higher order multimers. Consistent with this possibility, some CANC mutants, which appear to this reviewer to show a defect in higher order multimerization but not dimer formation, e.g., R100A/S102A, T107A/T108A, and T110A/Q112A, fail to bind the Ψ element.</p></disp-quote><p>The three mutants mentioned by the reviewer clearly retain some ability to multimerize as assessed by the crosslinking assay, but the extent of multimerization is clearly reduced compared to WT CANC. We agree with the reviewer that the failure of the chimeric Gag proteins, such as ccHex2-SP1-NC, to bind Ψ could be due to their failure to assemble beyond hexamers, but it could also perhaps be due to a failure to precisely position the NC domains in a hexameric configuration that recognizes Ψ. We have added some sentences to the discussion to address this point.</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>4. Discussion, second paragraph: The authors suggest that the basic building block of a Gag lattice is a Gag dimer, not a Gag hexamer. This is not consistent with the crosslinking data that appear to show no accumulation of Gag dimer when the CA trimer or hexamer interface is disrupted. It also contradicts the last sentence in the same paragraph.</p></disp-quote><p>We agree with this interpretation – in fact the discussion paragraph in question is intended to present the evidence both for and against the notion that a dimer is a basic building block of the Gag lattice. We concede that this discussion in the original submission was confusing and clearly we failed to convey this adequately. We have modified and simplified the wording to be clearer in our view that the order of addition of Gag molecules to the to the lattice is unlikely to be via discrete dimers, trimers or hexamer intermediates and that all the interfaces contribute similarly to lattice assembly.</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>5. Duchon et al. (2021) reported that in addition to the CA-CA dimer interface, the ability to bind membrane is necessary for a Gag molecule to recruit viral RNA to assembling particles (i.e., packaging). In this regard, it is interesting that the current study, which focuses on an earlier step, showed that specific recognition of viral RNA does not require membrane binding of Gag but still requires CA-CA interactions. It would be helpful for readers if the authors discuss the difference between this study and the study by Duchon et al. and suggest an integrated model about the sequence of the events.</p></disp-quote><p>We have included a new paragraph in the discussion that includes a discussion of the Duchon et al. results. The new data in the revised manuscript that measures vRNA incorporation into virions generated by certain CA mutants (see above) and Figure 4—figure supplement 4 impinges on these issues and is discussed alongside the Duchon et al. findings. Overall, we think these data indicate that packaging can occur in the cytosol or at the plasma membrane, but that in either case assembly of a nascent lattice is required.</p><disp-quote content-type="editor-comment"><p>6. Discussion, first sentence: The authors concluded that &quot;the initiation of the assembly of the immature HIV-1 Gag lattice in the cytosol of infected cells is required for the specific initial interaction between Gag/CANC and the Ψ element of the gRNA&quot;. This statement may be misconstrued as suggesting that a small-scale lattice must pre-exist for the Gag-gRNA interaction. Strictly speaking, the data showed the need for the ability of Gag to form a Gag lattice, which may occur upon the initial (and otherwise transient) NC-Ψ element interaction.</p></disp-quote><p>Conceded, we have changed the wording of this sentence to “we conclude that the initiation of the assembly of the immature HIV-1 Gag lattice in infected cells is required for the maintenance of the interaction between Gag/CANC and the Ψ element of the gRNA.”</p></body></sub-article></article>