Papillomavirus E1 protein binds to and stimulates human topoisomerase I

The papillomavirus (PV) E1 helicase plays a direct role in recruiting cellular DNA replication factors, such as replication protein A or polymerase alpha-primase, to replicate PV genomes. Here, E1 is shown to bind to human topoisomerase I and stimulate its relaxation activity up to sevenfold. The interaction between E1 and topoisomerase I was mapped to the E1 DNA binding domain and C terminus. These findings imply a mechanism for the recruitment of topoisomerase I to PV DNA replication forks and for stimulating topoisomerase I to allow for efficient relaxation of the torsional stress induced by replication fork progression.