Panel 29. This image shows 4 HIVs in the process or just after exiting an infected cell (in green). It has the merit of showing, from top to bottom, the successive stages of the maturation of the viral capsid. In the first position, at the very top, the virus buds out of the cell thanks to its capsid protein (in red) which forms a sphere at the level of the cell’s plasma membrane. This sphere extrudes from the cell, surrounding itself with a portion of the cell’s plasma membrane (in yellow). At this stage, the virus is still in contact with the cell, it is just held back by a “neck”. In the second position, a narrowing of this “neck” constitutes a preliminary step to the rupture of this link between the viral particle and the cell. In the third position, this virus is completely detached, the cell’s membrane having closed behind it.