A chimera of EBNA1 and the estrogen receptor activates transcription but not replication.

DNA replication from the plasmid origin of replication of Epstein-Barr virus requires one viral protein, EBNA1. This protein also acts as a transcriptional activator. Mutational analyses of EBNA1 have led to the conclusion that it supports transcription and DNA replication similarly. Such analyses have not probed the DNA-binding domain of EBNA1. To test whether domains of EBNA1 specifically required for either transcription or replication lie within its DNA-binding domain, we constructed a functional transcriptional activator by placing the EBNA1 DNA-binding domain in the context of the activation domains of the estrogen receptor. This hybrid protein did not support DNA replication, which indicates that the DNA-binding domain does not contain a replication-specific domain that can function along with heterologous transcriptional activating domains.