Characterization of a novel nuclear localization signal in the HTLV-I tax transactivator protein.

The Tax trans-activator protein of the type I human T-cell leukemia virus is expressed predominantly in the nuclei of cells. However, this viral trans-activator is distinguished from most other nuclear proteins by the absence of a short highly basic nuclear localization signal. Previous mutational analyses of the tax gene revealed that many of the missense mutations involving the amino terminus of Tax resulted in a predominantly cytoplasmic pattern of expression. We now report that the amino terminal 48 residues of Tax comprise a functional nuclear localization signal as demonstrated by the ability of this region to retarget expression of a large cytoplasmic protein to the nucleus.