The latency-associated nuclear antigen of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus permits replication of terminal repeat-containing plasmids

A Grundhoff, D Ganem - Journal of virology, 2003 - Am Soc Microbiol
A Grundhoff, D Ganem
Journal of virology, 2003Am Soc Microbiol
The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus
can associate with mitotic chromosomes and promote latent episome maintenance and
segregation. Here we report that LANA also mediates the replication of plasmid DNAs
bearing viral terminal repeats. The predicted secondary structure of LANA's C terminus
reveals striking similarity to the known structure of the DNA-binding domain of Epstein-Barr
virus EBNA1, despite the absence of primary sequence homology between these proteins …
Abstract
The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus can associate with mitotic chromosomes and promote latent episome maintenance and segregation. Here we report that LANA also mediates the replication of plasmid DNAs bearing viral terminal repeats. The predicted secondary structure of LANA's C terminus reveals striking similarity to the known structure of the DNA-binding domain of Epstein-Barr virus EBNA1, despite the absence of primary sequence homology between these proteins, suggesting conservation of the key mechanistic features of latent gammaherpesvirus DNA replication.
American Society for Microbiology