title: Hepatitis C virus nonstructural protein 5A contains potential transcriptional activator domains.
abstract: Hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major etiologic agent of transfusion associated hepatitis, is a positive, single-stranded RNA virus and is also known to be implicated in liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) of HCV contains acidic and proline-rich amino acids in its carboxy-terminal half. These structural features resemble eukaryotic transcription activators. In this report, we show that NS5A functions as a potent transcriptional activator when fused to the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) GAL4 DNA-binding domain (1-147). The potential transcriptional activator maps to the C-terminal half of NS5A in the yeast cell. Therefore, our data provides the first evidence that NS5A may modulate host cell function at the transcriptional level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: O K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jang
mesh_terms: D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase
chemical_list: D015534:Trans-Activators; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C087036:NS-5 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase