The herpes simplex virus VP16-induced complex: the makings of a regulatory switch.
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Wysocka J, Herr W
The herpes simplex virus VP16-induced complex: the makings of a regulatory switch.
Trends Biochem Sci. 2003 Jun;28(6):294-304.
- PubMed ID
- 12826401 [ View in PubMed]
- Abstract
When herpes simplex virus (HSV) infects human cells, it is able to enter two modes of infection: lytic and latent. A key activator of lytic infection is a virion protein called VP16, which, upon infection of a permissive cell, forms a transcriptional regulatory complex with two cellular proteins - the POU-domain transcription factor Oct-1 and the cell-proliferation factor HCF-1 - to activate transcription of the first set of expressed viral genes. This regulatory complex, called the VP16-induced complex, reveals mechanisms of combinatorial control of transcription. The activities of Oct-1 and HCF-1 - two important regulators of cellular gene expression and proliferation - illuminate strategies by which HSV might coexist with its host.