title: The E8--E2 gene product of human papillomavirus type 16 represses early transcription and replication but is dispensable for viral plasmid persistence in keratinocytes.
abstract: A conserved E8(wedge)E2 spliced mRNA is detected in keratinocytes transfected with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) plasmid DNA. Expression of HPV-16 E8--E2 (16-E8--E2) is independent of the major early promoter, P97, and is modulated by both specific splicing events and conserved cis elements in the upstream regulatory region in a manner that differs from transcriptional regulation of other early viral genes. Mutations that disrupt the predicted 16-E8--E2 message also increase initial HPV-16 plasmid amplification 8- to 15-fold and major early gene (P97) transcription 4- to 5-fold over those of the wild type (wt). Expressing the 16-E8--E2 gene product from the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter represses HPV-16 early gene transcription from P97 in a dose-dependent manner, as detected by RNase protection assays. When expressed from the CMV promoter, 16-E8--E2 also inhibits the amplification of an HPV-16 plasmid and a heterologous simian virus 40 (SV40) ori plasmid that contains E2 binding sites in cis. In contrast, cotransfections with HPV-16 wt genomes that express physiologic levels of 16-E8--E2 are sufficient to repress HPV-16 plasmid amplification but are limiting and insufficient for the repression of SV40 amplification. 16-E8--E2-dependent repression of HPV-16 E1 expression is sufficient to account for this observed inhibition of initial HPV-16 plasmid amplification. Unlike with other papillomaviruses, primary human keratinocytes immortalized by the HPV-16 E8 mutant genome contain more than eightfold-higher levels of unintegrated plasmid than the wt, demonstrating that 16-E8(wedge)E2 limits the viral copy number but is not required for plasmid persistence and maintenance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and The University of Iowa Roy J and Lucille A Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lace
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Anson
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Lubomir P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Turek
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Haugen