To assess whether ezrin phosphorylation in target cells is required for HIV-1 infection, murine leukemia virus (MLV) vector encoding C-terminally VSV-G epitope-tagged ezrin wild type (EZ-Wt) (Algrain et al., 1993), EZ-TA, and EZ-TD were constructed. The gene discussed is EZR; the disease is HIV-1 infection.