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J. Virol., 09 1997, 6611-6618, Vol 71, No. 9
S Harada and E Kieff
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear proteins EBNA-LP and EBNA-2 are the first
two proteins expressed in latent infection of primary B lymphocytes. EBNA-2
is essential for lymphocyte transformation, and EBNA-LP is at least
critical. While EBNA-2 activates specific viral and cellular promoters,
EBNA-LP's role has been obscure. We now show that EBNA-LP stimulates EBNA-2
activation of the LMP1 promoter and of the LMP1/LMP2B bidirectional
transcriptional regulatory element. EBNA-LP alone has only a negative
effect. EBNA-LP also stimulates EBNA-2 activation of a multimerized
regulatory element from the BamC EBNA promoter. Since both viral regulatory
elements can bind the EBNA-2- associated cell protein RBPJ kappa, consensus
RBPJ kappa binding sites were positioned upstream of the herpes simplex
virus type 1 thymidine kinase promoter and were found to be sufficient for
EBNA-LP and EBNA-2 coactivation. EBNA-LP strongly stimulated activation of
an adenovirus E1b promoter with upstream Gal4 binding sites by a Gal4 DNA
binding domain/ EBNA-2 acidic domain fusion protein, indicating that
EBNA-LP coactivation requires only the EBNA-2 acidic domain to be localized
near a promoter. The EBNA-LP stimulatory activity resides in the amino-
terminal 66-amino-acid repeat domain. The carboxyl-terminal unique 45 amino
acids appear to regulate EBNA-LP's effects. The first 11 amino acids of the
45 have a strong negative effect, while the last 10 are critical for the
ability of the last 34 to relieve the negative effect. These results
indicate that EBNA-LP's critical role in EBV-mediated cell growth
transformation is in stimulating (and probably regulating) EBNA-2-mediated
transcriptional activation.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
Epstein-Barr virus nuclear protein LP stimulates EBNA-2 acidic domain- mediated transcriptional activation
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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