The 86-kDa IE2 protein (IE2-p86) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a potent transactivator of viral as well as cellular promoters. Several lines of evidence indicate that this broad transactivation spectrum is mediated by protein-protein interactions. To identify novel cellular binding partners, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using a N-terminal deletion mutant of IE2-p86 comprising amino acids 135 to 579 as a bait. Here, we report the isolation of two ubiquitin-homologous proteins, SUMO-1 and hSMT3b, as well as their conjugating activity hUBC9 (human ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9) as specific interaction partners of HCMV IE2. The polypeptides SUMO-1 and hSMT3b have previously been shown to be covalently coupled to a subset of nuclear proteins such as the nuclear domain 10 (ND10) proteins PML and Sp100 in a manner analogous to ubiquitinylation, which we call SUMOylation. By Western blot analysis, we were able to show that the IE2-p86 protein can be partially converted to a 105-kDa isoform in a dose-dependent manner after cotransfection of an epitope-tagged SUMO-1. Immunoprecipitation experiments of the conjugated isoforms using denaturing conditions further confirmed the covalent coupling of SUMO-1 or hSMT3b to IE2-p86 both after transient transfection and after lytic infection of human primary fibroblasts. Moreover, we defined two modification sites within IE2, located in an immediate vicinity at amino acid positions 175 and 180, which appear to be used alternatively for coupling. By using a SUMOylation-defective mutant, we showed that the targeting of IE2-p86 to ND10 occurs independent of this modification. However, a strong reduction of IE2-mediated transactivation of two viral early promoters and a heterologous promoter was observed in cotransfection analysis with the SUMOylation-defective mutant. This suggests a functional relevance of covalent modification by ubiquitin-homologous proteins for IE2-mediated transactivation, possibly by providing an additional interaction motif for cellular cofactors.Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a member of the beta subgroup of herpesviruses, is characterized by its narrow host range and prolonged replicative cycle in cell culture as well as in the infected human host. Generally, HCMV possesses low pathogenicity when infecting healthy individuals. However, it is of considerable clinical importance in immunocompromised patients like transplant recipients or patients suffering from AIDS as well as in prenatally infected newborns (2, 3). As found for other herpesviruses, the lytic cycle gene expression of HCMV occurs in a sequential fashion. Initially after infection, the immediate-early (IE) gene products are the first to be synthesized, followed by the early and late gene products (12,47,68,69). IE gene expression, which does not require any prior viral protein synthesis, can be detected from the UL36-38, US3, TRS1, and major IE gene regions (58, 64, 65). The latter encodes two predominant proteins during the IE phase, the 72-kDa IE1 polypeptide (also called IE1-p72 ...

The 86-kilodalton immediate-early (IE) 2 protein (IE2-p86) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a multifunctional regulator of HCMV gene expression which appears to be essential for triggering the lytic replicative cycle. IE2-p86 functions as a promiscuous transactivator of both viral and cellular gene expression and can repress transcription from its own promoter. In this study we demonstrate that a viral early protein, termed pUL84, which is able to interact with IE2-p86 both in vivo and in vitro, modulates IE2-p86 in a specific manner. First, pUL84 acts as a transdominant inhibitor of IE2-p86-mediated transactivation of both homologous and heterologous promoters. Second, negative autoregulation by IE2-p86 is augmented in the presence of pUL84. Using two in vivo assays, we obtained evidence that expression of pUL84 during the IE phase of the viral replicative cycle leads to an inhibition of viral early gene expression which prevents replication of HCMV and results in a persistent infection of UL84-positive cell lines. Transdominant inhibition of a viral IE function by a protein expressed during the later phases of replication appears to be a novel principle used by herpesviruses which could account for the slow replication of HCMV and may be useful in the development of new antiviral strategies.

Large deletions of the upstream U3 sequences in the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of human immunodeficiency virus and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) accumulate in vivo in the absence of an intact nef gene. In the SIV U3 region, about 65 bp just upstream of the single NF-κB binding site always remained intact, and some evidence for a novel enhancer element in this region exists. We analyzed the transcriptional and replicative capacities of SIVmac239 mutants containing deletions or mutations in these upstream U3 sequences and/or the NF-κB and Sp1 binding sites. Even in the absence of 400 bp of upstream U3 sequences, the NF-κB site and all four Sp1 binding sites, the SIV promoter maintained about 15% of the wild-type LTR activity and was fully responsive to Tat activation in transient reporter assays. The effects of these deletions on virus production after transfection of COS-1 cells with full-length proviral constructs were much greater. Deletion of the upstream U3 sequences had no significant influence on viral replication when either the single NF-κB site or the Sp1 binding sites were intact. In contrast, the 26 bp of sequence located immediately upstream of the NF-κB site was essential for efficient replication when all core enhancer elements were deleted. A purine-rich site in this region binds specifically to the transcription factor Elf-1, a member of the etsproto-oncogene-encoded family. Our results indicate a high degree of functional redundancy in the SIVmac U3 region. Furthermore, we defined a novel regulatory element located immediately upstream of the NF-κB binding site that allows efficient viral replication in the absence of the entire core enhancer region.

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One characteristic of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the high complexity of its genome: the double-stranded DNA of approx 240 kbp contains the coding capacity for more than 200 different proteins (1,2). The genes encoding those proteins are expressed coordinately during the replication of this virus (3). Although posttranscriptional regulation has been described for HCMV, transcriptional regulation by promoter activation is believed to play a key role in mediating the cascade fashion of gene expression observed during the replicative cycle (4,5). Both viral and cellular proteins contribute to promoter activation. For instance, during the immediate-early (IE-) phase of gene expression, a strong enhancer-promoter drives transcription from the major IE gene region (6,7). This enhancer-promoter can both be regulated by cellular proteins such as transcription factors of the ATF/CREB and NF-κ-B family and viral proteins such as the tegument constituents pp71 and ppUL69 or the immediate early protein IE2-p86 (8-12).