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Human Cytomegalovirus Immediate-Early 2 Protein Transactivates c-jun Promoter Through ATF and MEF2 Site
Chung Gyu Park /Eung Soo Hwang/Tae Hee Han/Yoon Hoh Kook/Chang Yong Cha
Deparment of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Korea.
Vol.34 Num.1 (p18~25)
Background: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has the ability to activate the expression of man viral and cellular genes. The c-jun proto-oncogene has known to be induced at immediate early time of HCMV infection, however, the mechanism of
up-regulation of the gene was not known. We found HCMV immediate-early (IE) 2 expression transactivate the c-jun promoter in human embryonal lung cell (HEL).

Methods: The c-jun promoter region between-117 and -59 contains binding sites for the transcription fators Sp1, CAAT, AP-1 like (ATF/CREB), and MEF2. We tried to map the sequences in the c-jun promoter responsible for activation of the promoter
by HCVM IE2 expression. Transient expression assays were performed using various reporter plasmids containing the c-jun promoter-regulatory region linked to taining the c-jun promoter-regulatory region linked to the luciferase gene and a plasmid expressing HCMV IE2 gene.

Results: Deletional and point mutational analysis showed that ATF, MEF2, and another down stream elements were involved in the up-regulation of c-jun promoter. Gel mobility shift assay showed that there are several factors in HEL cell
nuclear extracts that specifically bind to these sites and in vitro translated IE2 could not move or super shift the specific bands.

Conclusion: This study delineate the mechanism of c-jun up-regulation in HCMV infection and would give the clue for the possible contribution of HCMV in trmorigenesis.
Keywords : HCMV, Immediate early protein2, c-jun promoter, ATF, MEF2