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Journal of Virology, February 2006, p. 2045-2050, Vol. 80, No. 4
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.80.4.2045-2050.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Medicine,2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology,3 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 275991
Received 2 August 2005/ Accepted 18 November 2005
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EBV maintains life-long latency in host cells. In latently infected LCLs or tumor cells EBV is usually maintained as an episome with copy numbers essentially constant in each cell line (26, 36), and the latent EBV episomes are located in chromosomes (37, 38). There have been extensive reports about transactivation and regulation of EBV latent gene promoters (16, 17, 20, 43); however, most studies were carried out in asynchronously growing cells, and little is known about transcription from EBV episomes in mitosis when transcription from host chromosomes is generally suppressed (13, 34, 41).
We recently reported that in type III latency EBNA2 is hyperphosphorylated specifically in mitosis, which suppresses transactivation of the LMP1 promoter. We implicated cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase in this hyperphosphorylation (46). In this follow-up report, we confirm the importance of hyperphosphorylation of EBNA2 in suppressing its function by identifying Ser243 as a cdc2/cyclin B1 phosphorylation site. Hyperphosphorylation at this site impairs not only transcription of the LMP1 promoter, but also the BamHI C promoter (Cp) used for transcription of all of the EBNAs.
Ser243 on EBNA2 is a phosphorylation site of cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase. The consensus motif for cdc2 kinase is Ser/Thr-Pro-X-Z (where X is a polar amino acid and Z is generally a basic amino acid) (29). In the EBNA2 protein, Ser243 is the most likely candidate site (sequence SPPR). First, we tested whether cdc2/cyclin B1 can directly phosphorylate purified EBNA2 at Ser243 in vitro. Purification of an EBNA2 fragment encoding 185 to 315 amino acids (185-315aa) or 185-315aa S243A, in which Ser243 was substituted with alanine, and in vitro kinase assay were described previously (46, 47). As shown in Fig. 1A, GST-EBNA2 185-315aa fusion protein which contains the potential phosphorylation site Ser243 was phosphorylated by cdc2/cyclin B1, whereas neither Ser243A substitution in the GST-EBNA2 185-315aa nor glutathione S-transferase (GST) was phosphorylated. The results indicate that cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase directly phosphorylates EBNA2 at Ser243 in vitro. Second, we studied whether cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase phosphorylates Ser243 when EBNA2 is expressed in mammalian cells. Wild-type full-length EBNA2 or EBNA2 with Ser243A substitution were immunoprecipitated from HeLa cells transiently transfected with either pSG5 EBNA2 (a gift from P. D. Ling) or pSG5 EBNA2 Ser243A plasmid (47) and subjected to cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase assay. As shown in Fig. 1B, wild-type EBNA2 can be phosphorylated efficiently in the presence of cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase, whereas phosphorylation of EBNA2 Ser243A is greatly diminished. Immunoblot analysis shows that essentially equal amounts of EBNA2 were used in the kinase assays. Taken together, the results shown in Fig. 1A and B indicate that Ser243 of EBNA2 is a specific phosphorylation site for cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase.
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FIG. 1. Phosphorylation of cdc2 site Ser243 in vitro and in vivo in mitosis. (A) Phosphorylation of purified GST-EBNA2 185-313aa (GST-E2), GST-EBNA2 185-313aa Ser243A (GST-E2 S243A) or GST in the presence (+) or absence () of cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase was carried out. The reaction mixtures were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (4 to 20% gradient gels). After Coomassie bright blue (CBB) staining, gels were exposed on a PhosphorImager. (B) Transiently expressed wild-type EBNA2 (wt) or EBNA2 S243A in HeLa cells were immunoprecipitated by EBNA2 antibody and used as substrates for cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase assays. Immunocomplexes were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred onto membrane; phosphorylation of EBNA2 was detected by autoradiography (top panel). Equal protein levels of EBNA2 were confirmed by immunoblotting (bottom panel). (C) Migration of wild-type EBNA2 and EBNA2 Ser243 in different phases of the cell cycle. HeLa cells were synchronized at the G1/S border by double-thymidine block. S- and G1-phase cells were collected 6 and 24 h after release from thymidine, and M-phase cells were collected by vigorous shaking-off at 10 h after release.
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-Phosphatase assays performed as described previously (46) confirmed that the shift in migration of EBNA2 and EBNA2 S243A in mitosis was due to differences in phosphorylation (data not shown). Therefore, the results indicate that Ser243 is a mitosis-specific hyperphosphorylation site of EBNA2 in vivo. Phosphorylation at Ser243 suppresses EBNA2 transactivation function. First, we studied whether phosphorylation of EBNA2 at Ser243 suppresses its ability to induce expression of LMP1. P3HR1 is an EBV-positive cell line in which EBNA-LP and EBNA2 open reading frames are deleted (9), and it expresses only low levels of LMP1; transfected EBNA2 can transactivate the endogenous LMP1 promoter and induce LMP1 expression in this cell line (30). Since replacement of serine by aspartic acid (D) (24, 35) or glutamic acid (E) (22, 23) can mimic phosphorylation, Ser243 of EBNA2 was mutated to aspartic acid (D) or glutamic acid (E), and the ability of these mutated proteins to induce LMP1 expression was compared when they were exogenously expressed in P3HR1 cells. As shown in Fig. 2A, wild-type EBNA2 efficiently induces LMP1 protein expression compared to empty vector; however, induction of LMP1 by the EBNA2 Ser243D or Ser243E mutant proteins is dramatically suppressed.
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FIG. 2. Induction of endogenous LMP1 expression in P3HR1 cells by EBNA2. Wild-type EBNA2, EBNA2 Ser243D, or EBNA2 Ser243E were transiently expressed in P3HR1 cells through electroporation. Transfection with empty vector was used as control. (A) Whole-cell lysates were subjected to immunoblotting for LMP1 and EBNA2 48 h after transfection. ß-Actin was used as a loading control. (B) Transfected cells were selected with anti-CD4 magnetic beads, and total RNA was extracted and subjected to RPA for LMP1 and GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) RNAs. Yeast RNA was used as negative and X50-7 RNA positive controls. A histogram quantifying LMP1 mRNA signals by normalization with GAPDH mRNA signals is shown. (C) Immunoblotting of EBNA2 in P3HR1 cells after nuclear and cytoplasm separation 48 h posttransfection. Lanes 1, 2, 3, and 4 contained EBNA2 Ser243E, EBNA2 Ser243D, wild-type EBNA2, and vector, respectively. Lamin B is used as a nuclear marker.
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EBNA2 is a nuclear protein (10, 18). We compared the nuclear localization of wild-type EBNA2 and mutant EBNA2 proteins that are exogenously expressed in p3HR1 cells. As shown in Fig. 2C, the majority of EBNA2 protein resides in the nucleus (lane 1), and substitution of Ser243 with D or E (lanes 2 and 3) does not materially affect EBNA2 nuclear localization. These results indicate that the inhibitory effect on EBNA2 function is not due to change in nuclear localization caused by the substitutions.
To test whether phosphorylation at Ser243 has a general effect on EBNA2 transactivation function, we chose Cp as a prototype for study since EBNA2 transactivates Cp, the promoter for all of the EBNAs, as well as the LMP1 promoters. HeLa cells were chosen for the present study since transactivation of Cp by EBNA2 has been well studied in HeLa cells (17); more importantly, mitotic cells can be easily separated from interphase cells by the classical "shake-off" method (19, 42). First, transactivation of Cp by EBNA2 in M phase was decreased by ca. 50% compared to that in asynchronous cells (Fig. 3A). To rule out a non-cell-cycle-dependent effect of nocodazole, we used the irrelevant simian virus 40 early promoter as a control and found that its activity was not affected by nocodazole, similar to previous observations (46; data not shown).
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FIG. 3. Phosphorylation at Ser243 suppresses EBNA2 transactivation of the EBV BamHI C promoter, Cp. HeLa cells were cotransfected with reporter plasmid pLuc-Cp and pRL-TK, which encodes the Renilla luciferase gene in addition to empty vector or EBNA2 expression vector encoding wild-type EBNA2 (EBNA2 wt) or EBNA2 Ser243D. At 24 h after transfection, cells were arrested in M phase by nocodazole (M); untreated asynchronously growing cells served as a control (Asy). Luciferase assays were performed to evaluate promoter activity. In each phase, transactivation of Cp by EBNA2 is normalized to the vector control. (A) Decreased transactivation of Cp by EBNA2 in M phase. *, P < 0.01 versus control. (B) Comparison of transactivation of Cp by wild-type EBNA2, EBNA2 Ser243A and EBNA2 Ser243D. Each datum point (A and B) represents the average of three independent experiments done in triplicate. Error bars represent the means ± the standard deviation.
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Third, the endogenous mRNA levels of EBNA2 in asynchronously growing and mitotically arrested LCL-1 cells were compared. As shown in Fig. 4, in M phase the steady-state level of EBNA2 mRNA is ca. 56% of that detected in asynchronously growing cells. Transcription of all of the EBNA genes is driven by one of two promoters, Cp or Wp, and the activity of these promoters is mutually exclusive (39, 44, 45). Wp is used during the initial stages of B-cell immortalization, followed by a switch to Cp usage (39, 44, 45). In this experiment, transcription of EBNA2 from Cp but not Wp was confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR (21; data not shown). These and our previous (46) results indicate that activity of the two major EBV latency promoters LMP1p and Cp is suppressed in mitosis.
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FIG. 4. Decreased endogenous steady-state EBNA2 mRNA levels in M-phase-arrested cells. (A) RPA was performed on total RNA from asynchronously growing (Asy) and M-phase-arrested (M) LCL-1 cells with GAPDH and EBNA2 probe. Yeast RNA or total RNA from DG75 cells were used as negative controls. A representative result from three independent experiments is shown. (B) Relative mRNA levels of EBNA2 were analyzed by normalizing EBNA2 mRNA levels to the GAPDH mRNA level with a PhosphorImager. Each datum point represents the average of three independent experiments. Error bars represent the means ± standard deviation (*, P < 0.01 versus Asy control).
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Phosphorylation at Ser243 generally suppresses EBNA2 transactivation function most likely during mitosis, since the Ser243 site does not seem to be phosphorylated in S and G1 phase (Fig. 1C). In eukaryotic cells, entry into mitosis is accompanied by a global inhibition of transcription (34, 41), and this transcriptional repression is thought to be required for the accurate division of chromosomes during mitosis (reviewed in reference 13). Transcriptional repression in mitosis is regulated at different levels, among which phosphorylation of a series of transcriptional factors by a mitotic kinase, in most cases involved with cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase, is one of the important mechanisms (13). The behavior of EBV episomes resembles that of host cellular DNA in terms of being packaged in a nucleosomal structure, replicated once per cell cycle (12, 37), and partitioned at mitosis (7). We report here another similarity between viral episomal and host gene behavior during the cell cycle: suppression of viral transcription during mitosis, likely produced by phosphorylation with cdc2/cyclin B1 kinase. Although mitotic transcriptional suppression might not be apparent at the viral protein level, since EBV products including EBNA1, EBNA2, and LMP1 have longer half-lives (3, 4, 11, 14) than the duration of mitosis (ca. 1 h [2]), mitotic suppression of EBV episomal transcription might nonetheless have a biological impact similar to mitotic inhibition of cellular transcription machinery (13).
The EBNA2 construct used in the present study is type 1 EBNA2 from the B95-8 strain. Type 2 (AG876) EBNA2 (9), as well as several EBNA2 homologs from nonhuman primate lymphocryptoviruses (LCVs), including baboon LCV EBNA2 (28) and rhesus LCV EBNA2 (32), has been identified and sequenced. Interestingly, as predicted by Scansite (31), EBNA2 proteins from these other viruses also have putative cdc2 phosphorylation sites, which implies that EBNA2 homologs might also be substrates of cdc2 kinase. Although Ser243 is not conserved among EBNA2 homologs based on protein alignment (32), all have putative cdc2 phosphorylation sites within the region adjacent to Ser243 (approximately amino acids 230 to 250) (Fig. 5), suggesting that this region might be positionally conserved with regard to phosphorylation by cdc2 kinase. In fact, a positionally conserved region in EBNA2 for PKC phosphorylation has been reported (27). It is tempting to predict that similar mitotic transcriptional suppression of EBNA2-responsive genes might occur in type 2 EBV or LCV latently infected cells through cdc2 phosphorylation in this conserved region.
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FIG. 5. Alignment of the type 1 (B95-8), type 2 (AG876), baboon LCV and rhesus LCV EBNA2 amino acid sequences from amino acids 230 to 328. Clusters of amino acids CR5 and CR6 (32) that are conserved among all four EBNA2 proteins are indicated (boxed), as is the positionally conserved, cdc2 consensus phosphorylation motif (boxed). The putative cdc2 phosphorylation sites are marked with an asterisk.
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This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA 19014).
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and PU. 1. J. Virol. 69:253-262.[Abstract]
B-regulated cell death inhibitors important for v-Rel transforming activity. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23:1520-1533.
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