期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1994
卷号:91
期号:8
页码:3463-3467
DOI:10.1073/pnas.91.8.3463
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), an oncogenic herpesvirus, encodes two small RNAs (EBERs) that are expressed at high levels during latent transformation of human B lymphocytes. Here we report that a 15-kDa cellular protein called EAP (for EBER associated protein), previously shown to bind EBER1, is in fact the ribosomal protein L22. Approximately half of the L22 in EBV-positive cells is contained within the EBER1 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particle, whereas the other half residues in monoribosomes and polysomes. Immunofluorescence with anti-L22 antibodies demonstrates that L22 is localized in the cytoplasm and the nucleoli of uninfected human cells, as expected, whereas EBV-positive lymphocytes also show strong nucleoplasmic staining. In situ hybridization indicates that the EBER RNPs are predominantly nucleoplasmic, suggesting that L22 relocalization correlates with binding to EBER1 in vivo. Since incubation of uninfected cell extracts with excess EBER1 RNA does not remove L22 from preexisting ribosomes, in vivo binding of L22 by EBER1 may precede ribosome assembly. The gene encoding L22 has recently been identified as the target of a chromosomal translocation in certain patients with leukemia, suggesting that L22 levels may be a determinant in cell transformation.