Viruses invade all forms of life, causing diseases in humans including HIV-AIDS. Although the variety of viruses is daunting, all enveloped viruses including those studied here, HIV-1 and Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV), must associate with the cytoplasmic leaflet of plasma membranes. One difficulty for in vitro studies is the lack of good models of the plasma membrane cytoplasmic leaflet. Another difficulty is that real cells can have membrane heterogeneities on the tens of nanometer size scale on the opposed, exoplasmic leaflet. Both of these experimental issues are addressed in these proposed studies, with a multicomponent model cytoplasmic mixture that can be coupled to a phase-separated lipid mixture in an asymmetric bilayer. This project will explore how three aspects of membrane lipid mixing behavior are related to viral Gag protein binding and assembly: (1) How is the thermodynamic activity of membrane-bound phosphatidylserine controlled by lipid composition, and how is this PS activity connected to Gag binding? (2) How is the thermodynamic activity of Gag's other binding partner, PI(4,5)P2 controlled by the other membrane lipids, and in particular, what factors control the formation of PI(4,5)P2 domains? Are these domains the sites of Gag assembly? (3) The plasma membrane is asymmetric. How does the presence of a phase-separated leaflet that is coupled to the cytoplasmic leaflet change Gag binding and assembly? A theme of this work is that the tendency of membrane lipids to bind or react is described by their thermodynamic activity, and this activity is controlled by all the components of the mixture. This approach provides predictive power to describe the associations of viral Gag structural proteins with their lipid binding partners: Which membrane factors exert control over the interactions among membrane-bound viral Gag proteins? The overall strategy is to combine measurements of lipid thermodynamic activity with measurement of virus protein binding and assembly. Fluorescence microscopy is used to visualize domains of PI(4,5)P2, and to correlate these domains with measured Gag binding and Gag-Gag assembly into its viral lattice.

Public Health Relevance

Useful treatments for viral afflictions, in particular HIV-AIDS, are not limited to all or none cures, and combinations of drugs, each of which slows down a step of the viral life cycle, have proven useful. The proposed studies will identify the membrane lipid compositions that are favorable for virus assembly, and those that inhibit. Studies of virus assembly in model membranes and in living cells could provide a basis for reducing viral load by manipulation of membrane bilayer phase behaviors via alteration of membrane lipid compositions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01GM105684-02S1
Application #
8915268
Study Section
Biochemistry and Biophysics of Membranes Study Section (BBM)
Program Officer
Chin, Jean
Project Start
2013-09-15
Project End
2017-05-31
Budget Start
2014-06-01
Budget End
2015-05-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$12,496
Indirect Cost
Name
Cornell University
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
872612445
City
Ithaca
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
14850
Usery, Rebecca D; Enoki, Thais A; Wickramasinghe, Sanjula P et al. (2018) Membrane Bending Moduli of Coexisting Liquid Phases Containing Transmembrane Peptide. Biophys J 114:2152-2164
Wen, Yi; Vogt, Volker M; Feigenson, Gerald W (2018) Multivalent Cation-Bridged PI(4,5)P2 Clusters Form at Very Low Concentrations. Biophys J 114:2630-2639
Dick, Robert A; Zadrozny, Kaneil K; Xu, Chaoyi et al. (2018) Inositol phosphates are assembly co-factors for HIV-1. Nature 560:509-512
Enoki, Thais A; Heberle, Frederick A; Feigenson, Gerald W (2018) FRET Detects the Size of Nanodomains for Coexisting Liquid-Disordered and Liquid-Ordered Phases. Biophys J 114:1921-1935
Usery, Rebecca D; Enoki, Thais A; Wickramasinghe, Sanjula P et al. (2017) Line Tension Controls Liquid-Disordered + Liquid-Ordered Domain Size Transition in Lipid Bilayers. Biophys J 112:1431-1443
Doktorova, Milka; Heberle, Frederick A; Kingston, Richard L et al. (2017) Cholesterol Promotes Protein Binding by Affecting Membrane Electrostatics and Solvation Properties. Biophys J 113:2004-2015
Heberle, Frederick A; Marquardt, Drew; Doktorova, Milka et al. (2016) Subnanometer Structure of an Asymmetric Model Membrane: Interleaflet Coupling Influences Domain Properties. Langmuir 32:5195-200
Konyakhina, Tatyana M; Feigenson, Gerald W (2016) Phase diagram of a polyunsaturated lipid mixture: Brain sphingomyelin/1-stearoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine/cholesterol. Biochim Biophys Acta 1858:153-61
Ackerman, David G; Feigenson, Gerald W (2016) Effects of Transmembrane ?-Helix Length and Concentration on Phase Behavior in Four-Component Lipid Mixtures: A Molecular Dynamics Study. J Phys Chem B 120:4064-77
Wen, Yi; Dick, Robert A; Feigenson, Gerald W et al. (2016) Effects of Membrane Charge and Order on Membrane Binding of the Retroviral Structural Protein Gag. J Virol 90:9518-32

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