Extracts prepared from either mouse cells or monkey cells were examined for the ability to support in vitro bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV1) DNA replication, and they were used in parallel as a source of host replication proteins for affinity chromatography. DNA synthesis exhibited an absolute requirement for BPV1 E1 protein. In contrast to previous observations, we found that low levels of E1 were highly efficient in initiating DNA replication in the absence of the BPV1 transcription factor E2. Surprisingly, COS-1 cell extract allowed a high rate of BPV1 DNA replication, supporting an efficient production of mature circular DNA molecules, whereas in mouse cell extracts, the replication products mostly consisted of replicative intermediates. Submitting the extracts to affinity chromatography allowed specific binding of DNA polymerase ␣-primase to E1 protein, up to a total depletion of the extract, regardless of the origin of the cell extract. Furthermore, replication protein A was not retained on E1 affinity columns, even when E2 was complexed with E1. These data confirm that the interactions between E1 and DNA polymerase ␣-primase do not exhibit cell-type specificity, as had already been suggested by data from in vivo and in vitro replication assays, but they imply that other cellular proteins may affect the level of E1-dependent replication.

Replication of bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-I) DNA has been shown to require two viral proteins known to interact in a molecular complex: E2, a transcription activator, and El, another nuclear phosphoprotein, which binds to the replication origin and for which helicase/ATPase activities have previously been reported. Here we characterize the BPV-1 E1 ATPase activity. In contrast to Seo et al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 90, 702-706, 1993), we were able to detect this activity in the absence of nucleic acid in partially purified preparations of either E1 protein or of El-E2 protein complex. Measurements of specific activity and kinetic parameters gave similar values for preparations of various kinds. ATPase activity was quantitatively retained by immunoprecipitates obtained by using anti-E1 or, in the case of El-E2 complex, anti-E2 antibodies. Significantly, preparations of bacterially expressed glutathione S-transferase-E1 fusion protein exhibited levels of DNA-independent ATPase activity comparable to those of baculovirusexpressed El. The presence of nucleic acids of various types, including stoichiometric amounts of a BPV-1 ori DNA fragment containing E1 and E2 binding sites, did not grossly affect E1 ATPase activity, the most notable effect being a 2-fold stimulation by unspecific ssDNA. Altogether, our results indicate that BPV-1 E1 possesses an intrinsic ATPase activity which does not depend on the presence of nucleic acid; moreover, they render unlikely any modulation of E1 ATPase activity due to binding either E2 protein or target DNA sequences, or as a result of protein phosphorylation.

The E1 open reading frame (ORF) of bovine papillomavirus type 1 is required for the persistence of viral genomes as multicopy plasmid molecules in transformed rodent fibroblasts. E1 has been reported to contain two separate complementation groups (M and R, corresponding to N- and C-terminal domains, respectively) which regulate viral replication. However, E1 behaves as a single gene with respect to cell transformation and viral transcription. We examined the proteins translated from the entire ORF by using three antisera raised against E1 peptide or bacterial fusion proteins. The capacity of the whole ORF to encode a 72-kDa protein was demonstrated by translation of synthetic RNA in a reticulocyte lysate system, by microinjection of RNA into Xenopus oocytes, and by expression in recombinant baculoviruses and vaccinia viruses. In eucaryotic cells, this protein was found to be phosphorylated and targeted to the cell nucleus. In vitro translation also produced shorter peptides, containing only the E1 C-terminal domain, because of internal translation starts on the third and fourth methionine codons within E1 ORF. On the other hand, mammalian cells infected by vaccinia E1 recombinant virus contained additional larger E1 phosphoproteins (transient 85-kDa and stable 88-kDa species), likely representing processed forms of the 72-kDa species. The E1 72-kDa nuclear phosphoprotein was detected in bovine papillomavirus type 1-transformed cells. We report the biochemical characteristics of full-sized and truncated E1 proteins: (i) the C-terminal half of E1 ORF contains a phosphorylation site(s); (ii) the full-sized E1, but not the C-terminal protein, binds DNA, without indication for recognition of defined sequences, and critical determinants for this activity are likely confined to an N-terminal domain of the protein; (iii) covalent affinity labeling experiments performed on vaccinia virus-encoded E1 proteins with an ATP analog confirmed our previous observation of sequence similarities between the E1 C-terminal domain and the ATPase domain of simian virus 40 large T antigen.

Bovine papillomavirus E1 protein was found to be as efficient as the simian virus 40 large T antigen in initiating DNA synthesis in a cell-free system derived from COS1 cells. Multiple rounds of DNA synthesis occur, initiated at the bovine papillomavirus type 1 origin. Therefore, E1 functions in vitro as a lytic virus initiator.