Open Access

Pauline J. Kolbeck, Marjolein de Jager, Margherita Gallano, Tine Brouns, Ben Bekaert, Wout Frederickx, Sebastian F. Konrad, Siska Van Belle, Frauke Christ, Steven De Feyter, Zeger Debyser, Laura Filion, Jan Lipfert, Willem Vanderlinden

• The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects non-dividing cells and its genome must be compacted to enter the cell nucleus. Here, we show that the viral enzyme integrase (IN) compacts HIV DNA mimetics in vitro. Under physiological conditions, IN-compacted genomes are consistent in size with those found for pre-integration complexes in infected cells. Compaction occurs in two stages: first IN tetramers bridge DNA strands and assemble into “rosette” structures that consist of a nucleo-protein core and extruding bare DNA. In a second stage, the extruding DNA loops condense onto the rosette core to form a disordered and viscoelastic outer layer. Notably, the core complex is susceptible towards IN inhibitors, whereas the diffuse outer layer is not. Together, our data suggest that IN has a structural role in viral DNA compaction and raise the possibility to develop inhibitors that target IN-DNA interactions in disordered condensates.