Tsg101: HIV-1's ticket to ride

Recent studies implicate the vacuolar protein-sorting pathway in the transport of the retroviral structural precursor (Gag) protein to its budding site on the plasma membrane of infected cells. This exploitation of the cellular endocytic trafficking machinery to release viral particles could lead to the identification of virus-specific modulators and provide opportunities to design new targeted anti-viral agents. A constituent of the cellular endocytic trafficking machinery, Tsg101, has been shown to bind the L domain of HIV-1 Gag, and this interaction could be essential for viral budding.