Research

Amphotropic murine leukaemia virus envelope protein is associated with cholesterol-rich microdomains

Christiane Beer^1,2 , Lene Pedersen² and Manfred Wirth¹

¹  Molecular Biotechnology, German Research Centre for Biotechnology, GBF, Mascheroder Weg 1, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany

²  Institute of Clinical Medicine and Department of Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

author email corresponding author email

Virology Journal 2005, 2:36doi:10.1186/1743-422X-2-36

Published:	19 April 2005

Abstract

Background

Cholesterol-rich microdomains like lipid rafts were recently identified as regions within the plasma membrane, which play an important role in the assembly and budding of different viruses, e.g., measles virus and human immunodeficiency virus. For these viruses association of newly synthesized viral proteins with lipid rafts has been shown.

Results

Here we provide evidence for the association of the envelope protein (Env) of the 4070A isolate of amphotropic murine leukaemia virus (A-MLV) with lipid rafts. Using density gradient centrifugation and immunocytochemical analyses, we show that Env co-localizes with cholesterol, ganglioside GM1 and caveolin-1 in these specific regions of the plasma membrane.

Conclusions

These results show that a large amount of A-MLV Env is associated with lipid rafts and suggest that cholesterol-rich microdomains are used as portals for the exit of A-MLV.