Intrigued by the apparent redundancy of Nups potentially assisting HIV-1 translocation through the nuclear pore, and challenged by the lack of mechanistic implications for these Nups, we set out to determine the involvement of four key Nups (Nup358/RanBP2, Nup214/CAN, Nup98 and Nup153) in functionally separable steps of HIV-1 infection and nuclear import. This evidence concerns the gene NUP214 and HIV-1 infection.