The indirect association of human T-cell leukemia virus tax protein with DNA results in transcriptional activation.

trans-activator p40tax of human T-cell leukemia virus type I activates specific enhancers and stimulates transcription of the viral and some cellular genes but does not bind directly to the enhancer sequences. We demonstrated here that a fusion protein of p40tax and GAL4 DNA binding domain activated transcription dependent on the GAL4-binding site in the reporter plasmid. Mutants of p40tax were also tested in the fusion protein, and their activities were found to be in parallel with those of their free forms on the original target long terminal repeat. This activation with GAL4 fusion protein was interfered with by the free form of p40tax. These results suggest that p40tax associates with DNA through interaction with DNA binding protein(s) and also interacts with another transcription factor(s) to elicit the activation.