A novel interaction between the human papillomavirus type 16 E2 and E1--E4 proteins leads to stabilization of E2

The E4 (also called E1--E4) and E2 proteins of human papillomavirus type 16 are thought to be expressed within the same cells of a lesion, and their open reading frames overlap, suggesting that they may have a functional relationship. We have examined the effect of co-expression of these two proteins and found that each enhances the level of the other. We also identified the N-terminus of E2 as the first example of a viral protein that directly binds the HPV16 E1--E4 protein. This appears to result in the E2 becoming less soluble and promotes its relocation from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. In addition, the turnover of the E2 protein is decreased in the presence of E1--E4. All this raises the possibility that E1--E4 acts to influence E2 activity by varying the amount of available E2 in the cell.