Ipsita Saha

Immature HIV virions harbor a lattice of Gag molecules with significant ordering in CA-NTD, CA-CTD and SP1 regions. This ordering plays a major role during HIV maturation. To test the condition in which the Gag lattice forms in vivo, we assembled virus like particles (VLPs) by expressing only HIV Gag in mammalian cells. Here we show that these VLPs incorporate a similar number of Gag molecules compared to immature HIV virions. However, within these VLPs, Gag molecules diffuse with a pseudo-diffusion rate of 10 nm²/s, this pseudo-diffusion is abrogated in the presence of melittin and is sensitive to mutations within the SP1 region. Using cryotomography, we show that unlike immature HIV virions, in the Gag lattice of VLPs the CA-CTD and SP1 regions are significantly less ordered. Our observations suggest that within immature HIV virions, other viral factors in addition to Gag, contribute to ordering in the CA-CTD and SP1 regions.

Immature HIV virions have a lattice of Gag and Gag-Pol proteins anchored to the lumen of their envelope. This lattice has significant void spaces that were previously characterized by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, cryoelectron tomography, and iPALM imaging. In the current study, we demonstrate that HIV virus-like particles (VLPs,) assembled by the viral protein Gag tagged at its C terminus with the photoactivable fluorescent protein Dendra, and are of the same size as virus-like particles assembled using only HIV Gag (140 ± 15 nm). We show that the Gag-Dendra lattice observed within these VLPs has similar gaps as those observed in Gag-only VLPs. We further used time-lapse iPALM microscopy to image the Gag–Dendra lattice within the lumen of VLPs at two timepoints. The reconstruction of these time-lapse images shows significant lattice dynamics within the lumen of purified VLPs. The addition of disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) to the purified VLPs completely abrogated these dynamics. A method to quantify the dynamics of the Gag–Dendra lattice using correlation function analysis is further presented. The HIV Gag lattice, along with the structural lattices of many other viruses, have been mostly considered static. Our study provides an important tool to investigate the dynamics within these lattices and also highlights the effects of fluorescent tags on virion structures.

Measuring transport properties like diffusion and directional flow is essential for understanding dynamics within heterogeneous systems including living cells and novel materials. Fluorescent molecules traveling within these inhomogeneous environments under the forces of Brownian motion and flow exhibit fluctuations in their concentration, which are directly linked to the transport properties. We present a method utilizing single photon interference and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to simultaneously measure transport of fluorescent molecules within aqueous samples. Our method, within seconds, measures transport in thousands of homogenous voxels (100 nm)³ and under certain conditions, eliminates photo-physical artifacts associated with blinking of fluorescent molecules. A comprehensive theoretical framework is presented and validated by measuring transport of quantum dots, associated with VSV-G receptor along cellular membranes as well as within viscous gels.

Interferometric Photo-Activation-Localization-Microscopy (iPALM) localizes single fluorescent molecules with 20 nm lateral and 10 nm axial resolution. We present a method utilizing glass coverslip lithography for correlative imaging between iPALM and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using iPALM on HIV Gag-Dendra virus-like particles (VLPs) we localized the position of HIV Gag proteins. Based on these localizations we reconstructed the central cavity of the VLPs along with imperfections within the HIV Gag lattice. The SEM images and iPALM images overlap and show imaging from single VLPs immobilized on glass coverslips. The localization of many HIV proteins including accessory proteins and Gag-Pol remains unknown, we discuss how the specificity of iPALM coupled with SEM has the potential for resolving more of HIV proteins.