“…The 96 amino acid polypeptides associate to form disulphide-linked homotetramers Holsinger & Lamb, 1991) which are modified by the addition of palmitate and phosphate (Sugrue et al, 1990b;Veit et al, 1991). As the target of the antiviral compounds amantadine and rimantadine (Hay et al, 1985) M2 was implicated in virus uncoating (Kato & Eggers, 1969;Bukrinskaya et al,, 1982;Wharton et al, 1990;Martin & Helenins, 1991). More recently, it has been proposed that during endocytosis the M2 ion channel is responsible for allowing the passage of protons from the acid endosome into the virion, thereby promoting a low pH-induced dissociation of the matrix protein from the nucleocapsid (Hay, 1989;Wharton et al, 1990).…”