We have characterized the properties of the maedi-visna virus (MVV) glycoprotein, which has a long cytoplasmic C-terminal domain, and of a panel of C-terminally truncated and C-terminally chimeric MVV-Env constructs. Cells expressing wild-type MVV glycoprotein form syncytia with target cells from many different species and tissues, demonstrating that the MVV-Env cellular receptor is widely distributed. Similar to the situation with other lentiviral glycoproteins, truncation of the C-terminal domain of MVV-Env significantly increases its membrane fusion capacity. However, despite their presence in a fusogenic form at the cell surface, neither the wild-type nor any of the C-terminally modified MVV-Env constructs, these latter lacking sterically inhibitory C termini, were able to successfully pseudotype murine leukemia virus-or human immunodeficiency virus-derived vector particles.The molecular processes which play a role in determining whether a particular surface glycoprotein can be incorporated into the membrane of retroviral particles and mediate virus infectivity are not yet entirely understood. Incorporation is not restricted to the homologous glycoprotein, and pseudotyping of retroviral vector particles can be achieved with a number of heterologous glycoproteins (e.g., the glycoproteins of amphotropic murine leukemia virus [MuLV-Env], vesicular stomatitis virus [VSV-G], and gibbon ape leukemia virus give rise to high vector titers on the order of 10 5 to 10 6 IU/ml). Further examples of pseudotyping include the use of the glycoproteins of Ebola virus (45), lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (27), and fowl plague virus (hemagglutinin) (8, 13). Additionally, incorporation of several cellular glycoproteins into retroviral and rhabdoviral particles has been demonstrated directly elsewhere (1,10,14,15,25,36,47). In several instances in which the incorporated proteins represent cellular receptors for virus uptake, the pseudotyped virus particles were infectious for cells expressing the respective viral glycoprotein (1,10,25,36).All of these results demonstrate that foreign C-terminal regions on incorporated viral or cellular glycoproteins can be compatible with retroviral particle infectivity. However, it is of note that the naturally occurring C termini on these incorporable viral and cellular glycoproteins are usually relatively short (in the range of 15 to 35 amino acids [aa]). In contrast to most viral glycoproteins, which have only short C-terminal domains, most lentiviral glycoproteins have long cytoplasmic C termini (150 to 200 aa). The functions of these conserved regions during wild-type virus infection have not been completely elucidated but may, in part, involve binding to calmodulin (26, 40). Bulky heterologous C termini have been implicated to be inhibitory to incorporation and pseudotyping in many (15, 24, 37, 44) but apparently not all (18) cases. Thus, wildtype human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) glycoprotein, with its naturally occurring long C terminus (151 aa), was not able to pseudotype murine r...