“…This general architecture is observed in other viral fusion proteins, such as other retroviruses Fass and Kim, 1995;Lu et al, 1995;Fass et al, 1996;Malashkevich et al, 1998), Ebola GP (Wiessenhorn et al., 1998Malashkevich et al, 1999), paramyxovirus F (Joshi et al, 1998Baker et al, 1999;Dutch et al, 1999), and influenza hemagglutinin (HA) proteins (Carr and Kim, 1993;Bullough et al, 1994). Conversion of fusion proteins to a rod-like structure via formation of a long trimeric coiled coil upon low pH application has been observed and forms the basis of a proposed spring-loaded mechanism by which hydrophobic amino-terminal "fusion peptides" are projected into the target membrane, ultimately resulting in fusion of the viral envelope with the target cell membrane (Carr and Kim 1993;Chan et al, 1997;Weissenhorn et al, 1997Weissenhorn et al, , 1999.For paramyxoviruses and HIV, evidence suggests that the hydrophobic 4-3 heptad repeats are directly involved in the viral fusion process. Single leucine-to-alanine mutations of the F proteins from paramyxoviruses do not block fusion, but multiple leucine-to-alanine mutations do abolish fusion activity of the protein but do not negatively affect F protein oligomerization or cell surface expression (Buckland et al, 1992;Sergel-Germano et al, 1994;Reitter et al, 1995).…”