Determination of viral proteins present in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 preintegration complex.

Cytoplasmic extracts prepared from cells infected with metabolically radiolabeled virions of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 contain viral DNA in association with labeled viral proteins. Viral DNA can be purified from these extracts by gel filtration chromatography and sucrose gradient sedimentation as a part of a nucleoprotein complex containing integrase as the only viral protein detectable by immunoprecipitation and gel electrophoretic analysis. The purified complex contains no detectable gag gene products, including p17, p24, p7, or p6, and contains no additional pol gene products, including the p10 protease, p66 and p51 polymerase, or the p15 RNase H. Nearly all of the purified nucleoprotein complexes are capable of integrating into heterologous DNA targets in vitro. These observations demonstrate that integrase is a component of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 preintegration complex and suggest that integrase may be the only viral protein necessary for the integration of retroviral DNA.