FIG. 6.
Effect of cleavage site mutations in either Gag or Gag-Pol on virion RNA dimerization. The impact of mutations in the proteolytic processing cleavage sites within Gag or Gag-Pol on genomic RNA dimerization was examined by melting curve and electrophoretic analysis of WT and mutant dimers. Dimers and monomers were electrophoresed in 1% native agarose gel and probed with an HIV-1 riboprobe, as described in Materials and Methods. (A) RNA dimerization analysis of genomic RNA isolated from WT (G/GP) and mutant G/GPCA2 or G/GPCA6 virions. (B) RNA dimerization analysis of genomic RNA isolated from GCA2/GP and GCA6/GP mutant virions.