EFFICIENT TRANSACTIVATION OF THE MINUTE VIRUS OF MICE P38 PROMOTER REQUIRES UPSTREAM BINDING OF NS1

The P38 promoter of the autonomous parvovirus minute virus of mice is strongly transactivated by the nonstructural protein NS1, a sequence-s pecific DNA-binding protein. In the context of the complete viral geno me, the only unique cis-acting signals required for P38 transactivatio n by NSP are the proximal Sp1 site and the TATA element. In the absenc e of additional upstream sequences, a dependence upon the NS1 binding site within the transactivation response region is observed. Addition of synthetic NS1 binding sites to transactivation response region dele tion mutants can restore the ability of NS1 to transactivate P38, and NS1 transactivation has been directly correlated to its ability to bin d upstream of the P38 promoter.