Protein-protein interactions between Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-LP and cellular gene products: binding of 70-kilodalton heat shock proteins.

The EBNA-LP protein encoded by the open reading frame in the leader exons of the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen messages is essential for efficient immortalization of B lymphocytes. Protein-protein interaction studies using affinity precipitation of proteins from [35S]methionine-labeled cell lysates and bacterially expressed maltose binding protein EBNA-LP fusions were performed. A cellular 68/72-kDa doublet protein was detected. This banding pattern was shown to be identical to that obtained in affinity precipitations with fusions of glutathione-S-transferase and Sp1 (a basal transcription factor). For both EBNA-LP and Sp1 the specific interacting cellular proteins have been identified as heat shock proteins (HSP) 72/73. Affinity precipitation of HSP 72/73 with deletion mutants of EBNA-LP maps the interaction domain on EBNA-LP to exon Y2 which is required for immortalization. Immunoprecipitation of EBNA-LP from EBV-positive lymphoblastoid cell lines coprecipitated the HSP 72/73 proteins, indicating that the interaction occurs in vivo as well as in vitro. The association of HSPs with a widening range of nuclear proteins involved in gene expression and proliferation control now includes Sp1 and EBNA-LP and suggests that there is a central role for molecular chaperones in these processes.