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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

Determination of Molecular Structures of HIV Envelope Glycoproteins using Cryo-Electron Tomography and Automated Sub-tomogram Averaging
Published on: December 1, 2011
Rational engineering enables co-crystallization and structural determination of the HIV-1 matrix-tRNA complex
Charles Bou-Nader1, Jinwei Zhang1
1Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Host tRNAs specifically interact with the matrix domain (MA) of HIV-1 major structural polyprotein, Gag, to control its membrane localization and virion assembly. In this protocol, we describe the purification and engineering of HIV-1 MA and tRNA, and the co-crystallization and structure determination of the complex using X-ray crystallography. Rational engineering of the tRNA surface created tRNA-tRNA packing contacts that drove the formation of diffraction-quality co-crystals. This protocol can be adapted to solve other ribonucleoprotein complex structures containing structured RNAs. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Bou-Nader et al. (2021).

