Maturation either occurs in the forming bud or in the immature virion after it buds from the host cell. During maturation, HIV proteases (proteinases) will cleave the polyproteins into individual functional HIV proteins and enzymes.

The Gag polyproteins (p55) will be cleaved by HIV proteases to become HIV matrix proteins (MA; p17), capsid proteins (CA; p24), and nucleocapsid proteins (NC, p7 and p6).

The Gag-Pol polyproteins (p160) will be cleaved by HIV proteases to become HIV matrix proteins (MA; p17), capsid proteins (CA; p24), proteinase molecules (protease or PR; p10), reverse transcriptase molecules (RT; p66/p51), and integrase molecules (IN; p32).

GIF Animation of maturation of HIV by Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/index.html.

Last updated: Feb., 2018
Please send comments and inquiries to Dr. Gary Kaiser