HIV-1 Accessory Proteins: Vpu and Vif

HIV-1 Vif and Vpu are accessory factors involved in late stages of viral replication. Vif regulates viral infectivity by preventing virion incorporation of APOBEC3G and other members of the family of cytidine deaminases, while Vpu causes degradation of CD4 and promotes virus release by functionally inactivating the host factor BST-2. This chapter described techniques used for the characterization of Vif and Vpu and their functional interaction with host factors. Many of the techniques are, however, applicable to the functional analysis of other viral proteins.