Current Research Questions

Research questions being addressed in the Lingappa lab in 2016 – 2017:

• How does the viral capsid protein HIV-1 Gag find and incorporate the HIV-1 genomes that are packaged during virus assembly?

• What is the function of cellular enzymes such as ABCE1 and DDX6 that bind to Gag and promote HIV-1 assembly?

• Can virus evolution in infected hosts select for HIV-1 Gag variants that produce more virus particles?

• Does the host subvert HIV-1 assembly by recruiting restriction factors to intracellular sites of assembly?

• Why do cellular proteins involved in cancer and neurologic diseases also bind to ABCE1, like HIV-1 Gag?

• Do other viruses besides retroviruses contain ABCE1 binding sites in their capsid proteins?