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Author Notes:
Correspondence should be addressed to Paul Spearman, paul.spearman@emory.edu
Academic Editor: Abraham Brass
Subject:
Research Funding:
This work was supported by NIH AI058828 and by funds from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The work was partly supported by the Emory Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI050409) and by the Robert P. Apkarian Integrated Electron Microscopy Core Laboratory of Emory University.
Restriction of Retroviral Replication by Tetherin/BST-2
Abstract:
Tetherin/BST-2 is an important host restriction factor that limits the replication of HIV and other enveloped viruses. Tetherin is a type II membrane glycoprotein with a very unusual domain structure that allows it to engage budding virions and retain them on the plasma membrane of infected cells. Following the initial report identifying tetherin as the host cell factor targeted by the HIV-1 Vpu gene, knowledge of the molecular, structural, and cellular biology of tetherin has rapidly advanced. This paper summarizes the discovery and impact of tetherin biology on the HIV field, with a focus on recent advances in understanding its structure and function. The relevance of tetherin to replication and spread of other retroviruses is also reviewed. Tetherin is a unique host restriction factor that is likely to continue to provide new insights into host-virus interactions and illustrates well the varied ways by which host organisms defend against viral pathogens.
Copyright information:
© 2012 Jason Hammonds et al.
This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
