Abstract :
[en] We had previously predicted successfully the minimal fusion peptides (FPs) of the
human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) gp41 and the bovine leukemia virus (BLV)
gp30 using an original approach based on the obliquity/fusogenicity relationship
of tilted peptides. In this paper, we have used the same method to predict the
shortest FP capable of inducing optimal fusion in vitro of the simian
immunodeficiency virus (SIV) mac isolate and of other SIVs and human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV-2) isolates. In each case, the 11-residue-long
peptide was predicted as the minimal FP. For the SIV mac isolate, liposome
lipid-mixing and leakage assays confirmed that this peptide is the shortest
peptide inducing optimal fusion in vitro, being therefore the minimal FP. These
results are another piece of evidence that the tilted properties of FPs are
important for the fusion process and that our method can be used to predict the
minimal FPs of other viruses.
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