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The polyoma virus medium and small tumor antigens, as well as simian virus 40 small tumor antigen, form specific complexes with two cellular proteins designated 61- and 37-kDa proteins. In this report, we demonstrate that the 61- and 37-kDa proteins correspond to the A and C subunits, respectively, of the serine- and threonine-specific protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). On the one hand, antibodies raised against the 61-kDa protein reacted specifically with the purified A subunit of PP2A. Furthermore, the amino acid sequences of seven tryptic peptides from the A subunit were almost identical to sequences of the 61-kDa protein as deduced from the corresponding cDNA sequence. On the other hand, antibodies against the purified C subunit (catalytic subunit) of PP2A reacted specifically with the medium tumor antigen-associated 37-kDa protein. These data suggest a role of PP2A in cell transformation by polyoma virus and simian virus 40.

Protein kinase activity (ATP:protein phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.37) has been found associated with the D2 hybrid protein, a highly purified protein of 107,000 daltons specified by the adenovirus-simian virus 40 (SV40) hybrid Ad2(+)D2, which has many properties associated with authentic SV40 T antigen [Tjian, R. & Robbins, A. (1979) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76, 610-614]. We have now examined some of the biochemical characteristics of the reaction products. Acceptors for the terminal phosphoryl group of [gamma-(32)P]ATP are the purified protein itself and at least four proteins extracted from nuclei of uninfected cells. Purified histones do not serve as substrate for the enzyme. Phosphorylation is markedly reduced by heating the D2 hybrid protein to 50 degrees C for 30 min. The products of phosphorylation are stable to treatment with ethanol/ether, DNase, and RNase, but completely degraded by digestion with Pronase, demonstrating their protein nature. The phosphate bonds are liable to hot alkali and sensitive to digestion with alkaline phosphatase but stable to treatment with hot acid or hydroxylamine. These results provide evidence that (32)P is incorporated into O-phosphoserine or O-phosphothreonine residues of acceptor proteins, indicating that the enzymatic activity is characteristic for protein kinase, and that cell-specified nuclear proteins other than histones may serve as substrates for the enzyme.

A 19-kDa protein, present in low copy number in purified adenovirus type 2, has been characterized. Several criteria were used to establish that this protein is neither a degradation product of the known structural proteins of the virion nor a minor, unusually modified, form of protein VII. This 19-kDa protein, unlike other virion proteins, possesses alkali-resistant phosphoamino acids. Analysis by partial proteolysis indicated that it is related to a 23-kDa phosphoprotein present in H2ts-1 virions assembled in infected cells maintained at 39 degrees C. Affinity labeling with [3H]diisopropyl fluorophosphate showed that the 19-kDa protein contains the active site for a serine protease. We, therefore, conclude that the 19-kDa protein is the active form of the adenovirus-encoded endopeptidase, defined by the H2ts-1 mutation, and is synthesized as a 23-kDa precursor that appears to mature by autocatalysis.

Linker-insertion mutations were introduced into the cloned adenovirus DNA polymerase gene and the functional effects on the initiation and elongation of DNA in vitro were measured. Essential regions of the polymerase appear to be scattered in patches across the entire molecule and are not limited to the five regions of homology shared with a variety of other replicating polymerases. Thus, the adenovirus DNA polymerase presumably contains active sites that must be formed by distant interactions across the polymerase molecule.

The 80,000-dalton form of the adenovirus (Ad) terminal protein (pTP) has been purified from Ad-infected HeLa cells. pTP was assayed by its ability to form a covalent complex with dCMP. The protein copurified with an activity that is essential for in vitro Ad DNA replication (Ad protein activity) as well as with a DNA polymerase activity that was distinguished from those of HeLa cell DNA polymerases alpha, beta, and gamma. The Ad protein-associated DNA polymerase activity was detected with activated DNA but not with poly(rA).oligo(dT) as template and was insensitive to aphidicolin and sensitive to N-ethylmaleimide. The Ad protein, DNA polymerase, and pTP-dCMP complex-forming activities sedimented in a glycerol gradient as a single peak with an apparent molecular size of 180,000 daltons. NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gel analysis of the glycerol gradient fraction showed major bands of 80,000 and 140,000 daltons. The 80,000-dalton band was identified as pTP by comparison of its tryptic peptide map with that of the 55,000-dalton form of the terminal protein, which was purified from Ad virions.

The N complementation group of adenovirus (Ad) serotype 5 mutants, which are temperature sensitive for viral DNA synthesis in vivo, has been used to study a 140,000-dalton DNA polymerase (Pol) that copurified with the 80,000-dalton terminal protein precursor (pTP). Extracts prepared from HeLa cells infected with the N group mutant H5ts149 at nonpermissive temperature were unable to synthesize viral DNA. The defect in these extracts was specifically reversed by addition of the Pol purified from wild-type Ad-infected cytosol. Addition of the pTP, free of the Pol, did not restore replicative activity to H5ts149 extracts. The reactions studied depend on the presence of the DNA template and include the initiation reaction (the covalent attachment of dCMP to the pTP) and the selective replication of Ad DNA restriction endonuclease fragments containing the origin sequences. Glycerol gradient sedimentation showed that a replicative activity representing the pTP-Pol complex was greatly reduced in H5ts149 extracts as compared with wild-type extracts, suggesting some alteration in the mutant. A pool of pTP free of Pol was detected on these gradients in extracts from both wild-type and H5ts149-infected cells. In addition, the initiation and elongation of Ad DNA catalyzed by H5ts149 extracts prepared from cells grown at permissive temperatures was more labile to urea inactivation than extracts prepared from cells infected with wild-type virus. These results, considered together with the mapping of the H5ts149 mutation within an open reading frame approximately large enough to code for the 140,000-dalton DNA polymerase [Gingeras, T. R., Sciaky, D., Gelinas, R. E., Bing-Dong, J., Yen, C. E., Kelly, M. M., Bullock, P. A., Parsons, B. L., O'Neill, K. E. & Roberts, R. J. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13475-13491; Alestrom, P., Akusjarui, G., Pettersson, M. & Pettersson, U. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13492-13498], suggest that the Pol is a virally encoded protein, as is the pTP.