FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITY BETWEEN ADENOVIRUS E1B 19K GENE AND BCL2 ONCOGENE - MUTANT COMPLEMENTATION AND SUPPRESSION OF CELL-DEATH INDUCED BY DNA-DAMAGING AGENTS
B. Tarodi et al., FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITY BETWEEN ADENOVIRUS E1B 19K GENE AND BCL2 ONCOGENE - MUTANT COMPLEMENTATION AND SUPPRESSION OF CELL-DEATH INDUCED BY DNA-DAMAGING AGENTS, International journal of oncology, 3(3), 1993, pp. 467-472
Adenovirus mutants defective in a 19 kD protein (19K gene) encoded by
the early region E1B induce DNA fragmentation in a manner similar to t
he internucleosomal DNA fragmentation observed during programmed cell
death (apoptosis) induced by a number of chemical, physical and biolog
ical stimuli. Zn++ ions effectively suppressed DNA fragmentation induc
ed by a 19K mutant consistent with their inhibition of DNA fragmentati
on during apoptosis. Since the cellular proto-oncogene Bcl2 has been s
hown to suppress DNA fragmentation and the resulting programmed cell d
eath, we have carried out a functional complementation analysis to det
ermine whether the E1B 19 kD protein is functionally similar to the Bc
l2 protein. Our results indicate that the DNA fragmentation induced by
the 19K mutant can be efficiently suppressed by stable expression of
human Bcl2 protein. Further, the 19 kD and Bcl2 proteins also function
similarly to suppress DNA fragmentation and cell death induced by the
DNA damaging agents cisplatin and UV.