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Journal of Virology, March 2004, p. 2615-2619, Vol. 78, No. 5
0022-538X/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.5.2615-2619.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Chiung-Yueh Hsu,
Anna Castro, Thierry Lorca, and Catherine Bonne-Andrea*
Centre de Recherches de Biochimie Macromoléculaire, CNRS FRE 2593, IFR 122, 34 293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Received 23 July 2003/ Accepted 11 November 2003
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We reported previously that a major regulatory restriction to viral replication can be imposed by regulated ubiquitination and degradation of the bovine papillomavirus (BPV) E1 protein (14). Results obtained in a cell-free system derived from Xenopus egg extracts allowed us to show that cyclin E-Cdk2, the major Cdk activity responsible for initiation of DNA replication, contributes to E1 stabilization and subsequent activation of the viral origin of replication. Importantly, we also found that protection of E1 is reversed as a consequence of replication (4, 14). We next became interested in identifying the ubiquitin ligase involved in E1 recognition. E1 shares functional homology with the replication initiation factor Cdc6, reported to be an anaphase-promoting complex (APC) substrate: Cdc6 is the initiation factor that recruits cyclin E-Cdk2 to chromosomal origins of replication, and recently cyclin E has been proposed to be involved in stabilization of Cdc6 (1, 5). This led us to investigate the involvement of APC in the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of E1. APC is a large multisubunit complex that promotes the specific and programmed degradation of several proteins to initiate chromosome segregation and exit from mitosis and that prevents unscheduled DNA replication during G1. Although it is present throughout the cell cycle, specific binding of activators, Cdc20 and Cdh1, which appear to function by recruiting substrates to the APC, results in a peak of APCCdc20 activity in mitosis and APCCdh1 activity in late mitosis and G1 (6). Recent studies have identified Emi1 as a specific inhibitor of APC activity, periodically expressed at the G1/S-phase transition and destroyed in mitosis. Emi1 has been shown to bind and inhibit substrate binding to Cdc20 as well as to Cdh1 (8, 18).
Here we report that Emi1 prevents BPV E1 degradation and increases viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. By using different assays we also show that BPV E1 contains a functional KEN box and a destruction box (D box) which serve as recognition motifs for the APC machinery. These findings support the involvement of the APC in E1 regulation and maintenance of latent viral replication. This also indicates that the molecular mechanisms of this regulation overlap mechanisms that control host cell DNA replication.
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FIG. 1. Immunodepletion of the APC or addition of Emi1 stabilizes E1 and enhances E1-dependent replication. (A) 35S-labeled E1 protein and pSKori+ DNA were added to HSS pretreated with control antibody (PI) or an anti-CDC27 antibody (Cdc27). The samples were warmed to 25°C, and aliquots (2 µl) were removed at 0, 10, and 30 min and were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography (upper panel, left). Nondepleted (lane 1), Cdc27-depleted (lane 2), and mock-depleted (lane 3) extracts were assayed for Cdc27 by immunoblotting (lower panel, left). Half of each reaction mixture was supplemented with (32P)dCTP and was used in the BPV1 origin replication assay. After a 30-min incubation, DNA products from nondepleted (lane 1), control-depleted (lanes 2 and 5), or Cdc27-depleted (lanes 3 and 4) extracts supplemented with either E1 or control buffer were purified, subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, and detected by incorporation of [32P]dCTP. FI and FII designate the migration positions of supercoiled monomer circle and nicked monomer circle markers, respectively. The amount of replicated DNA was quantified from the late replicative intermediates (RI) marked with an asterisk (right panel). (B) Emi1 was translated in fresh interphase egg extracts by adding mRNA encoding this protein. One hour later an Emi1-containing extract (+) or an extract devoid of Emi1 mRNA (-) was combined with HSS (1:4 ratio). After 20 min, 35S-labeled E1 protein and pSKori+ DNA were added and samples were removed for both protein analysis (left panel) and DNA analysis (right panel) as described for panel A. Samples to be analyzed for DNA synthesis were incubated 15 min (lanes 2 and 3) or 30 min (lanes 1, 3, and 5). A reaction without E1 was used in lane 1. The amount of replicated DNA was quantified from the late replicative intermediates (RI) marked with an asterisk.
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We transiently cotransfected vectors expressing Emi1, a recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFP)-E1 protein and E2 plus a BPV-ori plasmid in 293 cells. Total cell extracts were prepared at 48 and 72 h after transfection and were analyzed by immunoblotting with an antibody to GFP and an antibody to cyclin B. Immunoblots showed that Emi1 strongly increased the levels of both E1 and cyclin B (Fig. 2A), supporting the hypothesis that E1 degradation is mediated by the APC pathway in vivo. Furthermore, overexpression of Emi1 in the transient replication assay also stimulated the level of viral DNA replication 2.7-fold (Fig. 2B), indicating that inhibition of the APC is sufficient to enhance the level of E1-dependent replication events.
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FIG. 2. Emi1 prevents degradation of E1 and stimulates E1-dependent replication in living cells. (A) 293 cells were transfected with pEGFP-E1, pCGE2, and pSKori+ in the presence or absence of pCS2-Emi1. Lanes marked with a minus had the GFP-E1 or the Emi1 vectors replaced with an equal amount of the empty parental expression vector. At the indicated hours posttransfection, cells were harvested and total cell lysates were immunoblotted for GFP-E1 with an antibody to GFP, cyclin B, Emi1, and actin as a loading control. (B) Low-molecular-weight DNA was extracted from parallel cultures transfected as for panel A, digested with EcoRI and DpnI, and analyzed by Southern blotting. Filters were probed with radiolabeled pSKori+ plasmid to detect the presence of DpnI-resistant replication products. pOri FIII indicates the band generated after linearization of pSKori+ with EcoRI.
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FIG. 3. A D-box-like motif is a required determinant for the degradation of E1 in Xenopus egg extracts. (A) Schematic drawing of BPV-E1 showing the domains and positions of putative KEN-box and D-box motifs. (B) 35S-radiolabeled E1wt, E1AAN (K28A/E29A), or E1db (R346A/L349A) was added to HSS together with pSKori+ DNA, and aliquots (2 µl), removed at 0, 10, and 30 min, were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autoradiography (right panel). Half of each reaction mixture was supplemented with [32P]dCTP and was used in the BPV1 origin replication assay. After a 30-min incubation, DNA products were purified and analyzed directly by agarose gel electrophoresis. The amount of replicated DNA was quantified from the late replicative intermediates (RI) marked with an asterisk (left panel). (C) 35S-labeled E1wt or E1db was incubated with pSKori+ DNA in HSS. Overexposure of the autoradiogram shows the appearance of high-molecular-weight labeled ubiquitin-E1 conjugates (Ub-E1) in the replication assay carried out with E1wt.
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FIG. 4. The degradation of E1 is mediated by the APC-Cdh1 complex in living cells. (A) 293 cells were transfected with the wild type or mutant GFP-E1 expression vectors together with pCGE2 and pSKori+. Cells were harvested at the indicated hours posttransfection, and cell lysates were assayed by Western blotting for GFP-E1 with an antibody to GFP and actin as a loading control. (B) Low-molecular-weight DNA was extracted from cultures transfected as described for panel A, and plasmid replication was assayed as described in the legend to Fig. 2B. (C) The stability of 35S-radiolabeled E1wt or E1AAN was monitored in interphase egg extracts with or without Cdh1 mRNA as indicated. 35S-radiolabeled cyclin B was added to each reaction as an internal control. Samples were removed at different times and were analyzed by autoradiography.
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The present data reveal that ubiquitin-mediated degradation of BPV E1 involves the ubiquitin ligase complex APC. The results obtained with the cell-free system show that cancellation of APC activity as well as mutation of a D box specifically blocks replication-dependent E1 degradation, thereby causing additional replication events. Since E1 is stable in the absence of BPV-ori plasmids, these results raise the intriguing possibility that a specific function of APC targets E1 molecules engaged in replication. Cdc20 is the only APC regulator so far characterized for the Xenopus egg (11). However, all the experiments aimed at inhibiting this activity in the cell-free system were unsuccessful in that E1 stability and activity were not affected. Our results also demonstrate that an APC-Cdh1 activity is not involved, because the E1 KEN-box mutant that is resistant to APCCdh1 degradation is destroyed as a consequence of replication in egg extracts. Given that this APC activity is inhibited by Emi1 and that this inhibitor acts through substrate recognition factors, such as Cdc20 and Cdh1, one possible interpretation of these results is that replication-dependent E1 degradation is mediated by another, as-yet unidentified, substrate recognition factor. This hypothesis is supported by the recent identification of various CDH1 homologs in vertebrates, suggesting that APC associates with diverse substrate-specific adaptator protein (23).
The data obtained from transfected human 293 cells demonstrate that E1 degradation is also mediated by the APC pathway in living cells. In addition, E1 degradation appears to depend not only on a D box but also on a KEN box. Whether E1 is degraded in S phase during a somatic cell cycle remains to be determined. So far, the low level of GFP-E1 full-length protein as well as the accumulation of truncated GFP-E1 products has impeded precise determination of the timing of E1 degradation during transient replication in transfected cells.
Although the inability of the E1 D-box mutant to drive viral replication in an intact nucleus has not allowed us to determine the biological consequences of the D-box mutation, our data show that stabilization of E1 by mutation of the KEN box or Emi1 overexpression give rise to an increase of viral DNA replication in vivo. This indicates that APC-mediated E1 degradation controls the copy number of BPV-ori plasmids. Our previous studies showed that E1, stably associated to cyclin E, is protected from degradation, coupling E1 stability to the periodic accumulation of cyclin E-Cdk2 at the G1/S-phase transition and the onset of DNA synthesis (4, 14). Thus, E1 steady-state levels are most likely regulated by an appropriate balance between these two key cell cycle regulators.
A constant event, correlated with malignant transformation, is the integration of viral DNA into the host genome (24). It is not known whether integration precedes malignant transformation or if it is one of its consequences. However, autonomous replication of papillomavirus genomes depends on E1 function, and the viral initiator was shown to be one of the factors required to specifically prevent integration (12). Thus, E1 elimination caused by any unbalance of cyclin E and/or APC regulators would abrogate autonomous replication and cause integration. Conversely, a drop of E1 levels might have deleterious effects by compromising the regulation of the endogenous cellular targets of cyclin E and the APC. This is particularly relevant, because APC regulators are low-abundance, rate-limiting components. The finding that HPV18 E1 is the most frequently recovered cyclin E-interacting protein from a HeLa cell cDNA library has demonstrated that E1 is well produced in a cell line derived from a cervical carcinoma containing integrated papillomavirus DNA (13). Thus, further studies are required to investigate whether this viral initiator affects the host cell cycle and contributes to the oncogenic potential of papillomaviruses.
This work was supported by a grant from the Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer to C.B.-A. and by the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer (Equipe Labellisée). A.C. is a postdoctoral fellow supported by the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer.
F.M. and C.-Y.H. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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