Serine Phosphorylation of HIV-1 Vpu and Its Binding to Tetherin Regulates Interaction with Clathrin Adaptors.

HIV-1 Vpu prevents incorporation of tetherin (BST2/ CD317) into budding virions and targets it for ESCRT-dependent endosomal degradation via a clathrin-dependent process. This requires a variant acidic dileucine-sorting motif (ExxxLV) in Vpu. Structural studies demonstrate that recombinant Vpu/tetherin fusions can form a ternary complex with the clathrin adaptor AP-1.