Generation and characterization of APOBEC3G-positive 293T cells for HIV-1 Vif study

We have established a number of 293T cell lines that express a human anti HIV-1 factor APOBEC3G. Out of seven cell clones examined, four were readily demonstrated to express APOBEC3G by immunoblotting analysis. In particular, two clones (A3G-C1 and -C4) were found to produce a much higher level of functional APOBEC3G relative to that by pooled cell clones. The transfection efficiency of all these cell clones were similar to that of the parental cells, producing a comparable level of virions upon transfection of wild type and vif -minus proviral DNA clones. Furthermore, the expression level of APOBEC3G in the best cell line (A3G-C1) was far much higher than those of an APOBEC3G-positive lymphocyte cell line and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. We finally monitored the incorporation of APOBEC3G into virions produced in A3G-C1. APOBEC3G was easily detected in progeny viral particles upon transfection of vif -minus proviral clone but not of wild type. These results indicated that our new A3G-C1 cell line is eminently useful for various studies on the interaction of human APOBEC3G and HIV-1 Vif.