Multitasking: Making the most out of the retroviral envelope

Abstract

Evasion of the host's immune system is a required step for the establishment of viral infection. In this article, we discuss the recent findings of Heidmann and colleagues demonstrating that some retroviruses possess an immune suppressive (IS) domain encrypted within their envelope glycoprotein that is required to establish a successful infection in immunocompetent hosts [1]. © 2010 by the authors.