Primate herpesviral oncogenes

Gammaherpesviruses are the most rapidly growing members of the herpesviridae family. Gamma herpesviruses share similarity in their genome organizations and in early and late lytic genes that are required for viral replication. A distinct characteristic of gamma herpesviruses is their ability to establish latent infection in lymphoid cells, and some of these viruses are closely associated with abnormal proliferation and cancer in primates. The first open reading frame of the primate gamma herpesviruses has been shown to directly contribute to virus-associated pathogenesis. This open reading frame encodes latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) in Epstein-Barr virus, Saimiri transformation protein (STP) in Herpesvirus Saimiri, K1 in Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, and R1 in Rhesus monkey Rhadinovirus. All of these gene products are capable of eliciting cellular signal transduction events, resulting in cell growth transformation. This review briefly summarizes the current view on the transforming mechanisms utilized by primate herpesviral oncogenes.