It has become increasingly clear that an important host cell protein involved in retroviral integration is lens-epithelium-derived growth factor (LEDGF/p75), a transcriptional coactivator that has been shown to influence target site selection by HIV integrase (Ciuffi et al., 2005;Llano et al., 2006). LEDGF interacts directly with HIV integrase, and has been proposed to act as a tether that links pre-integration complexes to chromatin. Recently, the co-crystal structure of the integrase-binding region of LEDGF and the catalytic domain of HIV integrase has been determined (Cherepanov et al., 2005). However, it is not yet understood how LEDGF interacts with chromatin and directs integrase to its site of action. We have focused our structural attention on the N-terminal domain of LEDGF, a member of the PWWP family of proteins. This N-terminal domain has been hypothesized to bind to naked DNA but recent data suggests that it may may bind to other chromatin elements (Botbol et al., 2008). In particular, the resemblance between LEDGF's PWWP domain and proteins in the Tudor family suggested to us that it may bind methyl lysine residues on histone tails. We have expressed and purified several constructs encompassing this domain, and have used this domain for binding studies with both nucleosomes purified from chicken erythrocytes and modified peptides. Crystallization trials of LEDGF PWWP domain complexed with DNA and peptides are underway. Botbol, Y., Raghavendra, N.K., Rahman, S., Engelman, A., and Lavigne, M. (2008) Nucleic Acids Res. 36, 1237-1246. Cherepanov, P., Ambrosio, A.L.B., Rahman, S., Ellenberger, T., and Engelman, A. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 17308-17313. Ciuffi, A., et al. (2005) Nature Med. 11, 1287-1289. Llano, M., et al. (2006) Science 314, 461-464.
