Hh. Niller et al., Protein-DNA interaction and CpG methylation at rep*/vIL-10p of latent Epstein-Barr virus genomes in lymphoid cell lines, BIOL CHEM, 382(10), 2001, pp. 1411-1419
The viral interleukin-10 promoter (vIL-10p), overlapping the rep* element i
n the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome, is a promoter element active mostly
in the late phase of the lytic cycle and immediately upon infection of B ce
lls. rep* was, through transfection experiments with small plasmids, charac
terised as a cis element supporting oriP replicative function. In this stud
y, in vivo protein binding and CpG methylation at rep*/vIL-10p were analyse
d in five cell lines that harbour strictly latent EBV genomes. Contrary to
the invariably unmethylated dyad symmetry element (DS) of oriP, rep*/vIL-10
p was highly methylated and showed only traces of protein binding in all ex
amined cell lines. This result is in agreement with vIL-10p being an inacti
ve promoter of EBV genomes, and makes it less likely that rep* functions as
a replicative-element of latent EBV genomes.