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Journal of Virology, March 2000, p. 2826-2839, Vol. 74, No. 6
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Identification of a Boundary Domain Adjacent to the Potent Human Cytomegalovirus Enhancer That Represses Transcription of the Divergent UL127 Promoterdagger

Ana Angulo,1 David Kerry,1 Huang Huang,1 Eva-Maria Borst,2 Alison Razinsky,1 Jun Wu,1,Dagger Urs Hobom,2 Martin Messerle,2 and Peter Ghazal1,*

Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, Division of Virology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037,1 and Max von Pettenkofer Institute, Munich, Germany2

Received 7 September 1999/Accepted 13 December 1999

Transcriptional repression within a complex modular promoter may play a key role in determining the action of enhancer elements. In human cytomegalovirus, the major immediate-early promoter (MIEP) locus contains a highly potent and complex modular enhancer. Evidence is presented suggesting that sequences of the MIEP between nucleotide positions -556 and -673 function to prevent transcription activation by enhancer elements from the UL127 open reading frame divergent promoter. Transient transfection assays of reporter plasmids revealed repressor sequences located between nucleotides -556 and -638. The ability of these sequences to confer repression in the context of an infection was shown using recombinant viruses generated from a bacterial artificial chromosome containing an infectious human cytomegalovirus genome. In addition to repressor sequences between -556 and -638, infection experiments using recombinant virus mutants indicated that sequences between -638 and -673 also contribute to repression of the UL127 promoter. On the basis of in vitro transcription and transient transfection assays, we further show that interposed viral repressor sequences completely inhibit enhancer-mediated activation of not only the homologous but also heterologous promoters. These and other experiments suggest that repression involves an interaction of host-encoded regulatory factors with defined promoter sequences that have the property of proximally interfering with upstream enhancer elements in a chromatin-independent manner. Altogether, our findings establish the presence of a boundary domain that efficiently blocks enhancer-promoter interactions, thus explaining how the enhancer can work to selectively activate the MIEP.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, Division of Virology R307B, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, CA 92037. Phone: (858) 784-8678. Fax: (858) 784-9272. E-mail: ghazal{at}scripps.edu.

dagger Publication 10492-IMM from The Scripps Research Institute.

Dagger Present address: Signal Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, Calif.

Journal of Virology, March 2000, p. 2826-2839, Vol. 74, No. 6
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

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