{"doi":"10.1101/2021.02.08.430194","title":"The envelope cytoplasmic tail regulates HIV-1 assembly and spread","abstract":"Abstract The HIV-1 envelope (Env) is an essential determinant of viral infectivity, tropism and spread between T cells. Lentiviral Env contain an unusually long 150 amino acid cytoplasmic tail (EnvCT) but the function of the EnvCT and conserved domains within it remain largely uncharacterised. Here we identified a highly conserved tryptophan motif at position 757 (W757) in the LLP-2 alpha helix of the EnvCT as a key determinant for HIV-1 replication and spread between T cells. Strikingly we find that mutating W757 had wide-ranging consequences including altering Env mobility in the plasma membrane, preventing Env and Gag recruitment to sites of cell-cell contact for virological synapse (VS) formation and cell-cell spread, and impeding viral fusion. Notably, W757 was also required for efficient virus budding, revealing a previously unappreciated role for the EnvCT in regulating HIV-1 assembly and egress. We conclude that W757 is a key residue that stabilises the structural integrity and function of Env, consistent with the recent model that this region of the EnvCT acts as a critical supporting baseplate for Env.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2021,"id":218356,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9554,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":816157,"name":"Tafhima Haider","orcid":"0000-0003-0077-3970","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":2376,"name":"Dejan Mesner","orcid":"0000-0002-7109-4011","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":816158,"name":"Nicholas S. Groves","orcid":"0000-0003-1884-1097","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":561948,"name":"Schuyler B. van Engelenburg","orcid":"0000-0003-2100-3617","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1490,"name":"Clare Jolly","orcid":"0000-0002-4603-2281","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":816583,"name":"Xenia Snetkov","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:53:29.626149Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}