OBJECTIVETo study the potential transcriptional depression activities of HPV2 E2 proteins with mutations in different functional domains.

METHODSThe primers for constructing various E2 mutants were synthesized based on a HPV2 isolate containing several point mutations within E2 open reading frame. Different E2 mutations were generated by the method of extending PCR and inserted into plasmid pcDNA3. 1. Various recombinant mammalian expression plasmids pcDNA3. 1-E2 were co-transfected into HeLa cells together with a CAT-reporter plasmid pBLCAT-LCR containing HPV-2 prototype LCR, respectively. The transcriptional repression activities of the E2 mutants were evaluated by detection of CAT expression values.

RESULTSCompared with the full-length prototype E2, removals of both N- and C-terminal domains abolished E2 transcriptional repressive activities. The point mutations in the transactivation domain (nt 3037), the internal hinge region (nt 3387) and DNA binding domain (nt 3697) showed remarkable inhibition on its transcriptional depression function.

CONCLUSIONThe transcriptional regulation activity of HPV2 E2 is related with its DNA binding and transactivation domains. The exchanges of the single amino acid within E2, derived from a HPV2 isolate, abolish significantly the repressive effect on viral promoter in the context of full-length E2.