Four EBNA2 domains are important for EBNALP coactivation

EBNA2 transcriptional activation and regulated EBNALP coactivation are critical for Epstein-Barr virus-infected primary B-lymphocyte growth transformation. EBNALP coactivation requires the EBNA2 acidic activation domain (E2AD); EBNALP can bind to E2AD. EBNALP has now been found to bind less well to EBNA2 amino acids 1 to 58, which has been identified to be a second transcriptional activation domain, E2AD2. E2AD2 was specifically coactivated by EBNALP. Moreover, E2AD, E2AD2, EBNA2 RG domain, and the intermediate domain between RG and E2AD had significant roles in EBNA2-mediated activation and EBNALP coactivation.