The Tax protein and the minichromosome maintenance protein complex MCM2-7 affect cell replication and viral transcription

The Tax oncoprotein plays a key role in the mechanisms of transformation, viral persistence and pathogenicity. Recently, we showed that Tax interacts with the minichromosome maintenance MCM2-7 helicase and binds to origins of DNA replication (Boxus et al, 2012 Blood 119:151). In fact, Tax modulates the spatiotemporal program of origin activation during the S phase of cell cycle. By this mechanism, Tax accelerates S phase progression through early firing of late replication origins. By interacting with the 5’ LTR, the MCM2-7 complex also modulates Tax transactivation. Together, our data thus demonstrates that interaction between Tax and MCM2-7 modulates reprogramming of replication origins as well as viral transcription.