Cutaneous papillomavirus E6 oncoproteins associate with MAML1 to repress transactivation and NOTCH signaling

Papillomavirus E6 oncoproteins associate with LXXLL motifs on target cellular proteins to alter their function. Using a proteomic approach, we found the E6 oncoproteins of cutaneous papillomaviruses Bovine Papillomavirus Type 1 (BPV-1) E6 and human papillomavirus (HPV) types 1 and 8 (1E6 and 8E6) associated with the MAML1 transcriptional co-activator. All three E6 proteins bind to an acidic LXXLL motif at the carboxy-terminus of MAML1 and repress transactivation by MAML1. MAML1 is best known as the co-activator and effector of NOTCH-induced transcription, and BPV-1 E6 represses synthetic NOTCH-responsive promoters, endogenous NOTCH-responsive promoters, and is found in a complex with MAML1 in stably transformed cells. BPV-1-induced papillomas show characteristics of repressed NOTCH signal transduction, including suprabasal expression of integrins, talin and basal type keratins, and delayed expression of the NOTCH-dependent HES1 transcription factor. These observations give rise to a model whereby papillomavirus oncoproteins, including BPV-1 E6, and the cancer-associated HPV-8 E6 repress NOTCH-induced transcription, thereby delaying keratinocyte differentiation.