Figure 4. Vpu antagonizes Tetherin without promoting its endocytosis.
HeLa cells were co-transfected with the indicated HxBH10 constructs and a GFP-expressing plasmid. Forty-eight hours post-transfection, cell-surface Tetherin was labeled with Tetherin specific Abs at 4°C before incubating cells at 37°C for the indicated time intervals to allow endocytosis. Cells were then incubated at 4°C in presence of the appropriate secondary Abs. The graph depicts the relative levels of Tetherin at the surface of GFP-expressing cells (time 0 = 100%) and represents the loss of Tetherin-specific signal resulting from endocytosis. Full lines: HxBH10-vpu+; dashed lines: HxBH10-vpu-. Error bars indicate the standard deviation of the mean from two independent experiments.
