FIG. 1.

(A) Schematic illustration of the inserted stop codons in the gag gene. The mutated nucleotides are underlined. (B) Analysis of viral protein expression from various constructs in transfected COS-7 cells. The top, middle, and bottom panels represent Western blots performed with MAbs against HIV-1 CA (p24), MA (p17), and Env proteins, respectively. A fusion protein of ∼25 kDa that contains MA and truncated CA sequences is indicated by a star in the middle panel. Protein markers are shown on the right of the gels. BH-ΔMA contains stop codons in MA. BH-ΔCA contains stop codons in CA. BH-DG contains stop codons in both MA and CA. LD3-DG contains the LD3 deletion, as well as stop codons in MA and CA. LD3-MP2-MNC-DG contains the LD3 deletion and the MP2 and MNC point mutations, as well as stop codons in MA and CA.