title: The latency-associated nuclear antigen of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus permits replication of terminal repeat-containing plasmids.
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.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94143-0414, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grundhoff
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ganem
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D004261:DNA Replication; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D019309:Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010957:Plasmids; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D019309:Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigens; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C109540:latency-associated nuclear antigen; C417029:EBV-encoded nuclear antigen 1