Late promoter of human papillomavirus type 8 and its regulation.

Human papillomavirus type 8 (HPV8) belongs to the HPV types associated with skin carcinomas of patients with epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV). Its noncoding regulatory sequences (NCR) were shown to drive the expression of the reporter gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) in transient assays with human epithelial cells (HT3 cells). This constitutive activity could be enhanced by coexpression of the HPV8 transactivator protein E2. The analysis of 5' deletions of the NCR showed that the EV-specific sequence motif M33 and the neighboring AP1 site are essential for the promoter activity, whereas 44 nucleotides located immediately upstream of M33 are strongly inhibitory. The same effects were observed in simian virus 40-immortalized fetal keratinocytes (SV61 cells) and spontaneously immortalized skin keratinocytes (HaCaT cells). By using primer extension and RNase protection analyses two promoters could be identified within the HPV8 NCR. A nested set of weak signals, corresponding to start sites between positions 175 to 179, represented the previously described E6 promoter. The vast majority of transcripts was initiated at position 7535 and shown to undergo processing at an NCR-internal splice donor (positions 1 to 8). The promoter P7535 is similar to late promoters of other skin-associated papillomaviruses as far as localization, transcript structure, and sequence characteristics are concerned. To confirm that P7535-initiated transcripts proceed indeed to the L1 gene for the major capsid protein, viral mRNAs from an HPV8-induced lesion of a patient with EV were characterized by RNase protection and sequence analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified cDNAs. The NCR leader (positions 7535 to 4) appeared in two messages with three exons each. The third exon started with the second ATG codon of L1 in both cases; the short central exons from the 3' part of the early coding region were defined by a common splice acceptor site (position 3303) and different splice donor sites (positions 3443 and 3704).