Js. Mymryk et St. Bayley, MULTIPLE PATHWAYS FOR GENE ACTIVATION IN RODENT CELLS BY THE SMALLER ADENOVIRUS-5 E1A PROTEIN AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION, Journal of General Virology, 74, 1993, pp. 2131-2141
By immunoprecipitating protein products from virus-infected baby rat k
idney (BRK) cells with specific antibodies, we found that the smaller,
243 residue (243R) EIA protein of human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) activated
expression of the virus genes for E1B 55K. E2A 72K. E3 19K, hexon, fib
re and penton base and the cellular gene for PCNA. The 243R protein al
so activated the E2A 72K gene in several rodent cell lines. In transie
nt expression assays. this protein trans-activated the E2 early and ma
jor late promoters, suggesting that its effect was at least partially
transcriptional. Similar assays with mutants of the E2 early promoter
suggested that the ATF- and distal E2F-binding sites were required for
this activation. Using mutant viruses with deletions in EIA, we found
evidence for three separate pathways by which the 243R protein activa
ted gene expression: one depended on sequences in exon 1 required for
this protein to bind to p300, a second depended on sequences in exon 1
required for the protein to bind to pRb and the third appeared to be
independent of exon 1 altogether and to depend on exon 2. The relative
importance of these pathways for activation varied with the gene and
cell. We conclude that a major role of EIA in the transformation of BR
K cells by Ad5 is to activate specific genes by at least the first two
pathways.