Unusual properties of a replication-defective mutant SV40 large T antigen

The C11A mutant of SV40 large T antigen is unable to support the replication of viral origin containing DNA (ori-DNA) in vivo or in vitro. The mutation within C11A at residue 522 (pro-->ser) is located within the presumptive ATPase region of T antigen. While C11A T antigen was previously reported to be defective in ATPase and DNA helicase activities, it was shown to be capable of binding specifically to DNA containing the viral replication origin. As the positions of many conditional mutations of SV40 T antigen are located within the ATPase domain we asked whether C11A might also exhibit temperature-sensitive defects. We found that several activities of C11A T antigen are conditionally defective. C11A T antigen was able to hydrolyze ATP, assemble into hexamers, and display ATP-dependent alterations in DNA binding and ori-DNA structure at 33 degrees but not 41 degrees. Wild-type T antigen did not exhibit temperature-sensitive defects in these activities. C11A T antigen was completely unable to unwind ori-DNA at either temperature. This defect in unwinding was trans-dominant; C11A T antigen inhibited ori-DNA unwinding by wild-type T antigen. These data show that a mutant displaying a nonconditional defective phenotype may contain a subset of relevant properties that are temperature sensitive.