THE BOVINE PAPILLOMA-VIRUS E1 PROTEIN HAS ATPASE ACTIVITY ESSENTIAL TO VIRAL-DNA REPLICATION AND EFFICIENT TRANSFORMATION IN CELLS

The bovine papilloma virus (BPV) E1 protein essential to viral DNA rep lication has recently been shown to associate via direct protein-DNA i nteractions with the viral origin of replication and to be an ATP-depe ndent helicase. We show here that in accordance with the latter functi on, the E1 gene product has intrinsic ATPase activity. Mutations place d throughout the nucleotide binding consensus element abolish the ATPa se activity of E1 and render BPV genomes harboring such mutations defe ctive for episomal replication and impaired for oncogenic transformati on. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.