Strategies to Discover Novel Cellular Factors Involved in Retrovirus Replication

Abstract Retroviruses are obligate parasites that replicate within a cellular environment and co-opt host factors to synthesize infectious virions. Retroviruses hijack host cellular machinery to complete various steps in replication, including proviral transcription, translation of viral proteins, and subcellular trafficking factors to direct the viral ribonucleoprotein complex to the site of particle assembly. To advance understanding of the role of cellular factors in retroviral replication, genome-wide and targeted approaches have been used, with the identification of host factors that either promote or interfere with virus infection. This chapter delves into the most notable studies that utilized these techniques to identify potential host factors involved in retroviral replication.