Insight into a Transcriptional Adaptor Zinc Finger Encoded by a Putative Protein in the White Spot Syndrome Virus Genome

The transcriptional adaptor zinc (TAZ) fingers are a specialized class of zinc finger domains reported to exist only in eukaryotic transcriptional coactivator proteins. A putative protein within the shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) encodes for a TAZ domain, which is unique as no virus so far has been reported for the presence of this domain. Our study shows the viral TAZ domain to be similar to TAZ2 rather than TAZ1 domain of eukaryotic CREB-binding proteins and its paralog p300 proteins. Furthermore, as with eukaryotic TAZ2 domain which interacts and binds to several transcriptional factors including the p53 tumor suppressor protein, an in silico docking study of the WSSV-TAZ and the shrimp p53 transcriptional factor showed the two protein domains to be involved in a protein-protein interaction.