Fluorescent Protein Inserts in between NC and SP2 are Tolerated for Assembly, Release and Maturation of HIV with Limited Infectivity

We report the design of a fluorescent HIV construct that is labeled by insertion of fluorescent protein between the nucleocapsid (NC) and spacer peptide 2 (SP2) domains of Gag and further show that the fluorescent protein is released from its confines within Gag during maturation. This fluorescent HIV is capable of budding and maturation with similar efficiency to the parental virus. Virions generated using this design within the R8 HIV backbone...