Repression of p53 transcriptional activity by the HPV E7 proteins

The major transforming protein of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is encoded by the E7 gene. This protein cooperates with activated oncogenes to transform primary rodent cells and with the viral E6 gene to immortalize primary human keratinocytes. Numerous cellular targets of HPV E7 have now been identified including pRb, p107, cyclin A, TATA box binding protein (TBP), and members of the AP-1 transcription factor family. As with Adenovirus E1a, many of these interactions are important for the ability of E7 to transform cells. Recent studies have demonstrated that Adenovirus E1a can also inhibit the transcriptional activity of the cellular tumor suppressor protein, p53. We have performed a series of analyses to determine whether HPV E7 proteins share this characteristic. We show that HPV E7 proteins derived from both benign and tumor-associated HPV types are able to inhibit p53 transcriptional activity. Mutational analysis of the HPV-16 E7 protein reveals that a key domain involved in mediating this activity is the casein kinase II (CKII) recognition site, which has been shown to modulate E7 binding to TBP. We further show that E7 does not bind to p53 directly, but will do so in the presence of exogenously added TBP and that this binding is increased following CKII phosphorylation. These results suggest that the E7-TBP interaction may be responsible for inhibiting p53 transcriptional activity.