Murine leukemia virus p12 tethers the capsid-containing pre-integration complex to chromatin by binding directly to host nucleosomes in mitosis.
The murine leukaemia virus (MLV) Gag cleavage product, p12, is essential for both early and late steps in viral replication.The N-terminal domain of p12 binds directly to capsid (CA) and stabilises the mature viral core, whereas defects in the C-terminal domain (CTD) of p12 can be rescued by addition of heterologous chromatin binding sequences (CBS