Rebecca Kaddis Maldonado

Retroviruses use their unspliced RNA for two fates: it can serve as mRNA for the translation of the structural proteins or it can be packaged as genome into nascent virions. It remains unknown how retroviruses sort their unspliced RNAs for these two fates. Our lab has discovered that the Gag protein of Rous sarcoma virus traffics through the nucleus and that this is required for efficient packaging. I am studying the trafficking of unspliced RSV RNA and its interaction with host cell factors.