Genetic organization and hypoxic activation of the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus ORF34-37 gene cluster.

ABSTRACT: Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the etiologic agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). We previously reported that hypoxia activates KSHV lytic replication and that the promoter for open reading frame 34 (ORF34) contains a functional hypoxia-responsive element (HRE). ORF34 is part of a cluster of lytic genes (ORF34-37) that includes ORF36, a phosphotransferase, and ORF37, a shutoff exonuclease. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends analysis revealed that they share a common polyadenylation signal but have two start sites. Two transcripts were identified, one 3.4 kb encoding ORF35-37, and the other 4.2 kb encoding ORF34 and also having coding potential for ORF35-37. Exposure of PEL cell lines to hypoxia induced messages of lengths consistent with tho

SUBMITTER: Haque M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1489055 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature