Mapping of transcriptional regulatory domains of pseudorabies virus immediate-early protein

Abstract
Summary The 180 kilodalton immediate-early protein (IE180) of pseudorabies virus functions as a strong transactivator of several different promoters and also as a repressor of its own transcription. To map the functional domains of IE180, we prepared various truncated mutants and analyzed their transcriptional regulatory activities using the chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) assay. Analysis of mutants truncated from the carboxy-terminal end of the 1460-amino acid polypeptide showed that a polypeptide possessing amino acids 1 to 1081 retained significant functions of transactivation and autoregulation potential. On the other hand, removing amino acids 1 to 131 resulted in a complete loss of transactivation potential, indicating that the domain responsible for transactivation is located in the amino-terminal end of IE180. Additional amino-terminal trunction up to amino acid 453 did not affect the autoregulation activity, indicating that the region between amino acids 454 and 1081 has autoregulation potential.