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Journal of Virology, August 2008, p. 7745-7751, Vol. 82, No. 15
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02717-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

You-Chang Lo,1,
Huey-Huey Chua,1
Hsin-Yi Chiu,1
Shu-Chun Tsai,1
Jen-Yang Chen,2
Kwok-Wai Lo,3 and
Ching-Hwa Tsai1*
Graduate Institute of Microbiology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan,1 National Health Research Institutes, Taipei, Taiwan,2 Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, State Key Laboratory in Oncology in South China, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong3
Received 21 December 2007/ Accepted 30 April 2008
The tumor suppressor gene p53 plays a central role in the maintenance of normal cell growth and genetic integrity, while its impact on the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) life cycle remains elusive. We found that p53 is important for histone deacetylase inhibitor-induced EBV lytic gene expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Restoration of p53 in p53-null, EBV-infected H1299 cells augments the potential for viral lytic cycle initiation. Evidence from reporter assays demonstrated that p53 contributes to the expression of the immediate-early viral Zta gene. Further analysis indicated that the DNA-binding ability of p53 and phosphorylation of Ser392 may be critical. This study provides the first evidence that p53 is involved in the regulation of EBV lytic cycle initiation.
Published ahead of print on 21 May 2008.
S.-S.C. and Y.-C.L. contributed equally to this study.
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