Identification of Staufen in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag ribonucleoprotein complex and a role in generating infectious viral particles

Staufen is a host protein that is selectively incorporated into human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) particles in a poorly defined process that involves the selection of HIV-1 genomic RNA for encapsidation and the activity of its third double-stranded RNA-binding domain (dsRBD3). To better understand this, we characterized its interactions with pr55(Gag), the principal mediator of HIV-1 genomic RNA encapsidation. Chimeric proviruses harboring wild-type or mutant forms of Staufen were expressed in 293T cells. Cell fractionation analyses demonstrated that Staufen cosedimented with pr55(Gag) within detergent-resistant, trypsin-sensitive complexes that excluded mature capsid and matrix proteins. Coimmunoprecipitation and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer assays demonstrated a specific and direct interaction between Staufen and the nucleocapsid domain of pr55(Gag) in vitro and in live cells. This interaction is shown here to be mediated by Staufen's dsRBD3, with a contribution from its C-terminal domain. Immunoprecipitation and reverse transcription-PCR analyses showed that the 9-kb genomic RNA was found within Staufen-containing immune complexes. Spliced HIV-1 RNAs were not detected in these Staufen complexes, indicating a preferential association of Staufen with the 9-kb species. These results substantiate that Staufen and pr55(Gag) interact directly during HIV-1 expression. Knockdown of Staufen expression by small interfering RNAs in HIV-1-expressing cells demonstrated that this cellular protein was important for the generation of infectious virus. These data show that Staufen, pr55(Gag), and genomic RNA are part of the same intracellular complex and support a role for Staufen in pr55(Gag) function in viral assembly, genomic RNA encapsidation, and the generation of infectious viral particles.