Rotavirus spike protein VP4 is implicated in several important functions, such as cell attachment, penetration, hemagglutination, neutralization, virulence, and host range. It is present at the plasma membrane and colocalizes with the cytoskeleton in infected cells. We looked for cellular partners responsible for the localization of VP4 by two-hybrid screening of a monkey CV1 cell cDNA library. In the screen we isolated repeatedly three cDNAs encoding either two isoforms (a and c) of Rab5 protein or the prenylated Rab acceptor (PRA1). The small GTPase Rab5 is a molecule regulating the vesicular traffic and the motility of early endosomes along microtubules. Rab5 interacts with a large number of effectors, in particular with PRA1. Interactions of VP4 with both partners, Rab5 and PRA1, were confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation from infected-or transfectedcell lysates. Interaction of Rab5 and PRA1 was restricted to free VP4, since neither triple-layered particles nor NSP4-VP4-VP7 heterotrimeric complexes could be coprecipitated. Site-directed and deletion mutants of VP4 were used to map a VP4 domain(s) interacting with Rab5 or PRA1. Of the 10 mutants tested, 2 interacted exclusively with a single partner. In contrast, the domain extending from amino acids 560 to 722 of VP4 is essential for both interactions. These results suggest that Rab5 and PRA1 may be involved in the localization and trafficking of VP4 in infected cells.Rotaviruses are the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in young children worldwide (24). Structural and biochemical analyses show that rotaviruses are large, icosahedral particles consisting of three concentric capsid layers surrounding a genome of 11 segments of double-stranded RNA (15, 45). VP4 is a nonglycosylated protein and forms spikes that project from the rotavirus surface. Trypsin cleavage of VP4 into the fragments VP8* and VP5* is required for viral infectivity and stabilization of the spikes (11, 30). VP4 has been implicated in several important functions, such as cell attachment, penetration, hemagglutination, neutralization, and virulence (10,17,26,32). It has been shown previously that VP5*, which includes a conserved hydrophobic region located between amino acids (aa) 384 and 401 of VP4, is a specific membrane-permeabilizing protein and could play a role in the cellular entry of rotaviruses (12). Heterotrimers consisting of VP4, NSP4, and VP7 may participate in the budding of the single-shelled particles into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, where maturation to double-shelled particles seems to occur (33, 39).Rab proteins are a family of Ras-related low-molecularweight monomeric GTP-binding proteins (ϳ20 to 29 kDa) which are key regulators of vesicular transport within eukaryotic cells (7). Several effector proteins alter either the state of phosphorylation or the intracytoplasmic location of Rab proteins and thus modulate their biological activity (25). The first modification refers to a posttranslational covalent addition of two 20-carbon isoprenoid geranyl-geranyl gro...