FIG. 5.

(A) Illustration of the A3A-A3G fusion construct. The N-terminal region of A3G (amino acids 1 to 194) was fused with A3A (amino acids 13 to 199). (B) Interaction of A3G-HA or A3Gn/3A-HA with 7SL RNA, analyzed as described in the legend to Fig. 1D. The error bars indicate standard deviations. (C) Fusion of the N terminus of A3G to A3A enhances A3A packaging. HIV-1ΔVif virions were generated by transfecting 293T cells in T25 flasks with NL4-3ΔVif (4 μg) plus 4-fold serial dilutions of A3A or A3Gn/3A. Cell lysates and viral lysates were harvested from each sample and analyzed by immunoblotting at 48 h posttransfection. A3A-HA and A3Gn/3A-HA proteins were detected with the anti-HA antibody, and viral Gag proteins were detected with the anti-p24 antibody.