A molecular model has been built of the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) proteinase on the basis of the crystal structures of the related Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) proteinases. The 104 residue long EIAV proteinase has 30 identical and 11 similar amino acids compared to those in HIV-1 proteinase and 25 identical and 18 similar amino acids compared to RSV proteinase. The overall structure is predicted to be close to that of HIV-1 proteinase. Two regions show differences: there are 6 additional residues leading to the tip of the flap, which is predicted to be involved in interactions with substrate, and there is a single residue deletion in the beta b' strand at a position equivalent to residue 60 in HIV-1 proteinase. The conformation of the residues leading to the flap was modeled by analogy to the corresponding region of RSV proteinase. The peptide substrate, VSQNYPIVQ, was modeled by analogy to the inhibitors in the co-crystal structures of HIV-1 proteinase, and the residues forming the substrate binding sites of EIAV proteinase were identified. EIAV proteinase showed several non-conservative substitutions in these residues compared to HIV-1 proteinase: Thr 30 instead of Asp in subsites S2, S2', S4, and S4', Ile 54 instead of Gly 48 in subsites S1, S1', S3, and S3', Arg 79 instead of Thr 74 in S4 and S4', and Ile 85 instead of Thr 80 in subsites S1 and S1'.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The proteinase of the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), a lentivirus closely related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), was purified from concentrated virus. The specificity of the enzyme was characterized using oligopeptides representing naturally occurring cleavage sites in the Gag and Gag-Pol polyproteins. The length of the substrate binding pocket was found to be 1-2 residues longer than that of HIV proteinases. Although the EIAV and HIV proteinases cleaved most of the peptides at the same bond, some were hydrolyzed by only the EIAV enzyme. Oligopeptides representing cleavage sites in the nucleocapsid protein were also found to be substrates of the EIAV proteinase. However, these peptides were not hydrolyzed by the HIV proteinases. While peptides representing the corresponding sequences in the first cysteine arrays of the nucleocapsid proteins of HIV-1 and HIV-2 were substrates of the proteinases, peptides representing the homologous sequences in the second Cys arrays were resistant against the proteolytic attack. A three-dimensional model of the EIAV proteinase built on the basis of homology with HIV-1 proteinase was used to interpret the differences. In addition to the oligopeptides representing cleavage sites in the Gag and Gag-Pol polyproteins, the EIAV proteinase was also able to cleave an oligopeptide mimicking a cleavage site in the transmembrane protein. Our results suggest that the specificity of lentiviral proteinases share common characteristics, although substantial differences may exist in hydrolysis of some peptides.