Tetherin (BST2/CD317) potently restricts the particle release of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mutants defective in the accessory gene vpu. Vpu antagonizes tetherin activity and induces its cell surface downregulation and degradation in a manner dependent on the transmembrane (TM) domains of both proteins. We have carried out extensive mutagenesis of the HIV-1 NL4.3 Vpu TM domain to identify three amino acid positions, A14, W22, and, to a lesser extent, A18, that are required for tetherin antagonism. Despite the mutants localizing indistinguishably from the wild-type (wt) protein and maintaining the ability to multimerize, mutation of these positions rendered Vpu incapable of coimmunoprecipitating tetherin or mediating its cell surface downregulation. Interestingly, these amino acid positions are predicted to form one face of the Vpu transmembrane alpha helix and therefore potentially contribute to an interacting surface with the transmembrane domain of tetherin either directly or by modulating the conformation of Vpu oligomers. While the equivalent of W22 is invariant in HIV-1/SIVcpz Vpu proteins, the positions of A14 and A18 are highly conserved among Vpu alleles from HIV-1 groups M and N, but not those from group O or SIVcpz that lack human tetherin (huTetherin)-antagonizing activity, suggesting that they may have contributed to the adaption of HIV-1 to human tetherin.Tetherin (CD317/BST2) is an interferon-induced type II membrane glycoprotein of unusual topology (4, 25, 44) that potently restricts the release of diverse mammalian enveloped viral particles from infected cells (24,33,42,45,49,52,63). The protein consists of a short 21-amino-acid cytoplasmic tail, a transmembrane (TM) domain, a predominantly helical extracellular domain containing three cysteine residues that mediate tetherin dimerization (1,44,48) and an extended parallel coiled-coil (18), and a C-terminal glycophosphatidylinositol anchor that links it back to the cellular membrane (25). These structural features are key to the mode of tetherin activity (48). Tetherin is localized to the plasma membrane (PM) and constitutively recycles through intracellular compartments (25,50). It is incorporated into budding virions and acts as a physical tether, cross-linking the virion and cellular membranes, thereby preventing virus particle release from the host cell (11,15,16,48). Strong evidence suggests that the dual membrane anchor of tetherin allows it to form parallel dimers with one terminal in the virion membrane and the other in the cell (48). The result of this is that mature viral particles are retained on cell surfaces by protease-sensitive linkages that contain tetherin, and virions can then be endocytosed and accumulate in endosomal compartments (41,42,48). This relatively nonspe-