NMR Relaxation Studies of an RNA-Binding Segment of the Rous Sarcoma Virus Gag Polyprotein in Free and Bound States: A Model for Autoinhibition of Assembly

Assembly of retrovirus particles is promoted by interaction of the Gag polyprotein with RNA. Nonspecific RNA association with the nucleocapsid domain (NC) of Gag induces the dimerization of Gag through protein-protein contacts in the capsid domain (CA), followed by higher order assembly to form the immature virus particle. NMR relaxation studies were conducted to investigate the initial steps of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) assembly by examining the...