Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Virology. 2010 Apr 10;399(2):312-21. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2010.01.006. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Marek' disease virus serotype-1, also know as Gallid herpesvirus 2 (GaHV-2), elicits T-cell lymphomas in chickens. The GaHV-2 genome encodes an oncoprotein, Meq, with similarity to the Jun/Fos family of proteins. We have previously shown that Meq homodimers are not sufficient to induce lymphomas in chickens. In this study, we investigated the role of Meq heterodimers in the pathogenicity of GaHV-2 by generating a chimeric meq gene, which contains the leucine zipper region of Fos (meqFos). A recombinant virus containing the meqFos gene in place of parental meq, rMd5-MeqFos, was not capable of transforming chicken lymphocytes, indicating that heterodimerization of Meq alone is not sufficient for transformation. In addition, the recovery of the oncogenic phenotype by a recombinant virus encoding one copy each of MeqGCN (homodimer) and MeqFos (heterodimer) conclusively demonstrates that both homo and heterodimerization of Meq are required for oncogenesis.
马立克氏病病毒血清型 1，也称为禽疱疹病毒 2（GaHV-2），可在鸡中引发 T 细胞淋巴瘤。GaHV-2 基因组编码一种致癌蛋白 Meq，与 Jun/Fos 蛋白家族具有相似性。我们之前的研究表明，Meq 同源二聚体不足以在鸡中诱导淋巴瘤。在这项研究中，我们通过生成嵌合 meq 基因来研究 Meq 异二聚体在 GaHV-2 致病性中的作用，该基因包含 Fos（meqFos）的亮氨酸拉链区。一种含有 meqFos 基因代替亲本 meq 的重组病毒 rMd5-MeqFos，不能转化鸡淋巴细胞，表明 Meq 单独异二聚化不足以转化。此外，编码一个 MeqGCN（同源二聚体）和一个 MeqFos（异二聚体）拷贝的重组病毒恢复致癌表型，明确证明 Meq 的同源和异源二聚化均是致癌所必需的。
