Dimerization of the Transmembrane Domain of Human Tetherin in Membrane Mimetic Environments
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Tetherin/Bst-2 is a cell surface protein that can act as a restriction factor against a number of enveloped viruses, including HIV-1. It acts by tethering new virus particles to the host cell membrane, promoting their internalization and degradation. Tetherin is a type II membrane protein, with an N-terminal transmembrane domain, an extracellular coiled-coil domain, and a C-terminal GPI anchor. This double membrane anchor is important for anti-HIV activity, as is dimerization of the coiled-coil domain, but despite recent crystal structures of the coiled-coil ectodomains of human and mouse tetherin, the topology of tetherin with respect to host and viral membranes has yet to be determined. The tetherin transmembrane domain is also thought to mediate interactions with the HIV-1 encoded integral membrane protein Vpu, which is an antagonist of tetherin, through direct binding to the transmembrane region of Vpu. Using a combination of SDS-PAGE, size exclusion chromatography, and pyrene excimer fluorescence, we show that in the absence of the coiled-coil domain the transmembrane domain of human tetherin forms parallel homodimers in membrane mimetic environments. Transmembrane domain dimerization does not require disulfide bond formation and is favored in TFE, SDS micelles, and POPC liposomes. This observation has implications for functional models of tetherin, suggesting that both transmembrane domains in the dimeric molecule are inserted into the same lipid bilayer, rather than into opposing membranes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".