Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1993 Mar;67(3):1310–1314. doi: 10.1128/jvi.67.3.1310-1314.1993

Identification of amino acid residues critical for infection with ecotropic murine leukemia retrovirus.

T Yoshimoto 1, E Yoshimoto 1, D Meruelo 1
PMCID: PMC237498  PMID: 8382297

Abstract

The murine cationic amino acid transporter is also the receptor for murine ecotropic leukemia retrovirus (MuLV-E). Recently, we have cloned a human gene (H13) homologous to the murine ecotropic retroviral receptor (ERR). Although the human homolog is very similar to murine ERR in sequence (87.6% amino acid identity) and structure (14 transmembrane-spanning domains), the human protein fails to function as a receptor for MuLV-E. To identify amino acid residues critical for MuLV-E infection, we took advantage of this species difference and substituted human H13 and murine ERR amino acid residues. Mouse-human chimeric receptor molecules were generated by taking advantage of using common restriction sites. These studies demonstrated that extracellular domains 3 and/or 4 contain the critical amino acid residues. Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis was then used to create 13 individual ERR mutants containing one or two amino acids substitutions or insertions within these two extracellular domains. Substitution of as few as one amino acid residue (Tyr) at position 235 in ERR with the corresponding H13 amino acid residue Pro abrogates the ability to function as a receptor for MuLV-E infection. Conversely, substitution of just two amino acid residues at positions 240 and 242 or 242 and 244 in H13 with the corresponding amino acid residues in ERR endows H13 with the ability to function as the receptor. This observation can be utilized to significantly improve the safety of retrovirus-mediated gene therapy in humans.

Full text

PDF
1310

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Albritton L. M., Tseng L., Scadden D., Cunningham J. M. A putative murine ecotropic retrovirus receptor gene encodes a multiple membrane-spanning protein and confers susceptibility to virus infection. Cell. 1989 May 19;57(4):659–666. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90134-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Clayton L. K., Hussey R. E., Steinbrich R., Ramachandran H., Husain Y., Reinherz E. L. Substitution of murine for human CD4 residues identifies amino acids critical for HIV-gp120 binding. Nature. 1988 Sep 22;335(6188):363–366. doi: 10.1038/335363a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cunningham B. C., Wells J. A. High-resolution epitope mapping of hGH-receptor interactions by alanine-scanning mutagenesis. Science. 1989 Jun 2;244(4908):1081–1085. doi: 10.1126/science.2471267. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Danos O., Mulligan R. C. Safe and efficient generation of recombinant retroviruses with amphotropic and ecotropic host ranges. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(17):6460–6464. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.17.6460. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Devereux J., Haeberli P., Smithies O. A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 1):387–395. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.1part1.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Felgner P. L., Gadek T. R., Holm M., Roman R., Chan H. W., Wenz M., Northrop J. P., Ringold G. M., Danielsen M. Lipofection: a highly efficient, lipid-mediated DNA-transfection procedure. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Nov;84(21):7413–7417. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.21.7413. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Friedmann T. Progress toward human gene therapy. Science. 1989 Jun 16;244(4910):1275–1281. doi: 10.1126/science.2660259. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Green S., Issemann I., Sheer E. A versatile in vivo and in vitro eukaryotic expression vector for protein engineering. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Jan 11;16(1):369–369. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.1.369. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kim J. W., Closs E. I., Albritton L. M., Cunningham J. M. Transport of cationic amino acids by the mouse ecotropic retrovirus receptor. Nature. 1991 Aug 22;352(6337):725–728. doi: 10.1038/352725a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lamarre D., Ashkenazi A., Fleury S., Smith D. H., Sekaly R. P., Capon D. J. The MHC-binding and gp120-binding functions of CD4 are separable. Science. 1989 Aug 18;245(4919):743–746. doi: 10.1126/science.2549633. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Landau N. R., Warton M., Littman D. R. The envelope glycoprotein of the human immunodeficiency virus binds to the immunoglobulin-like domain of CD4. Nature. 1988 Jul 14;334(6178):159–162. doi: 10.1038/334159a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lewis M. K., Thompson D. V. Efficient site directed in vitro mutagenesis using ampicillin selection. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Jun 25;18(12):3439–3443. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.12.3439. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Mizukami T., Fuerst T. R., Berger E. A., Moss B. Binding region for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and epitopes for HIV-blocking monoclonal antibodies of the CD4 molecule defined by site-directed mutagenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Dec;85(23):9273–9277. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.23.9273. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Peterson A., Seed B. Genetic analysis of monoclonal antibody and HIV binding sites on the human lymphocyte antigen CD4. Cell. 1988 Jul 1;54(1):65–72. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90180-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Price J., Turner D., Cepko C. Lineage analysis in the vertebrate nervous system by retrovirus-mediated gene transfer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jan;84(1):156–160. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.1.156. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Robey E., Axel R. CD4: collaborator in immune recognition and HIV infection. Cell. 1990 Mar 9;60(5):697–700. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90082-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sattentau Q. J., Weiss R. A. The CD4 antigen: physiological ligand and HIV receptor. Cell. 1988 Mar 11;52(5):631–633. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90397-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Verma I. M. Gene therapy. Sci Am. 1990 Nov;263(5):68-72, 81-4. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican1190-68. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Wang H., Kavanaugh M. P., North R. A., Kabat D. Cell-surface receptor for ecotropic murine retroviruses is a basic amino-acid transporter. Nature. 1991 Aug 22;352(6337):729–731. doi: 10.1038/352729a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Yoshimoto T., Yoshimoto E., Meruelo D. Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel human gene homologous to the murine ecotropic retroviral receptor. Virology. 1991 Nov;185(1):10–17. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(91)90748-z. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES