Figure 5. Vpr expressed following infection with HIV-1 reduces exogenous sZIP expression levels.

293T cells were co-transfected with equal amounts of empty or FLAG-sZIP-expressing plasmid in the presence of a GFP expression vector as an internal transfection control (ratio 10:1). After 24h the cells were mock infected or infected with two doses of the indicated HIV-1 viruses (50 and 250 ng of GAG CAp24 per 10⁵ cells). Two days post-infection the cells were lysed and expression levels of FLAG-sZIP, GFP and GAG products were assessed by western-blot in the whole cell extracts (top panel). The histogram (bottom panel) displays the FLAG/GFP signal ratios.