Figure 3.

Model for Vif-induced degradation of APOBEC3G. (A) Sequence motifs in Vif implicated in the assembly of a Cul5-E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. Two conserved domains in Vif, the HCCH motif and the SLQ motif are involved in binding Cul5 and elongin C (EloC). Vif coordinates one zinc molecule, which may be required to stabilize a structure important for the binding of cullin 5 (Cul5). (B) Adaptor model for Vif-induced APOBEC3G degradation. According to this model Vif is an adaptor molecule with binding sites for APOBEC3G and the Cul5-E3 ligase complex (1). Expression of Vif results in the formation of an APOBEC3G-Vif-E3 ternary complex (2). This triggers poly-ubiquitination of APOBEC3G (3) resulting in the degradation of APOBEC3G (4).