Cell cycle regulation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integration in T cells: antagonistic effects of nuclear envelope breakdown and chromatin condensation

We examined the influence of mitosis on the kinetics of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integration in T cells. Single-round infection of cells arrested in G1b or allowed to synchronously proceed through division showed that mitosis delays virus integration until 18–24 h postinfection, whereas integration reaches maximum levels by 15 h in G1b-arrested cells. Subcellular fractionation of metaphase-arrested cells indicated that, while nuclear envelope disassembly facilitates docking of viral DNA to chromatin, chromosome condensation directly antagonizes and therefore delays integration. As a result of the balance between the two effects, virus integration efficiency is eventually up to threefold greater in dividing cells. At the single-cell level, using a green fluorescent protein-expressing reporter virus, we found that passage through mitosis leads to prominent asymmetric segregation of the viral genome in daughter cells without interfering with provirus expression.