Steady progress has been made in defining both the viral and cellular determinants of
retroviral assembly and release. Although it is widely accepted that targeting of the Gag
polypeptide to the plasma membrane is critical for proper assembly of HIV-1, the intracellular
interactions and trafficking of Gag to its assembly sites in the infected cell are poorly
understood. HIV-1 Gag was shown to interact and co-localize with calmodulin (CaM), a
ubiquitous and highly conserved Ca 2+-binding protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells …