Abstract: Three mutants have been constructed that introduce single, nonconservative amino acid changes in the fusion peptide, and three fusion phenotypes were observed: substitution of glutamic acid for the glycine residue at the amino-terminus of
HA2 abolished all fusion activity; substitution of
glutamic acid for the glycine residue at position 4 in
HA2 raised the threshold pH and decreased the efficiency of fusion; and, finally, extension of the hydrophobic stretch by replacement of the
glutamic acid at position 11 with glycine yielded a mutant protein that induced fusion of erythrocytes with cells with the same efficiency and pH profile as the wild-type protein.