Team:Freiburg/parts/BBa K1150001

From 2013.igem.org


VP16

Virus Protein 16 (VP16) is a transcription factor encoded by the UL48 gene of Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1). Through complex formation with cellular host factors VP16 can bind to a common regulatory element in the upstream promotor region of immediate-early genes [Weir, 2001]. Through the transactivating function of VP-16 these genes can then be expressed. VP16 consists of 490 amino acids with two very important functional domains: a core domain in its central region which is necessary for the indirect DNA binding and a carboxy-terminal transactivation domain (Greaves and O’Hare, 1989; Triezenberg et al., 1988); see Fig.1. The transactivation domain (TAD) of VP16 can be fused to a DNA-binding domain (DBD) of another protein in order to gain expression of a desired target gene [Hirai et al., 2010].