HPV11 E7 Protein Interacts with Nup62 and CRM1 Nuclear Export Receptor

Abstract

In this study we investigated the hydrophobic interactions between HPV11 E7 and the FG regions of Nup62N through transfection assays with EGFP-11E7 fusion plasmids in HeLa cells and binding assays with GST-Nup62N immobilized on Glutathione-Sepharose beads. We found that EGFP-11cE7 binds to Nup62N. This suggests a possible mechanism for the nuclear import of HPV11 E7 through direct hydrophobic interactions between its carboxy-terminus and the FG region of Nup62. The interaction between HPV11 E7 and CRM1 nuclear export receptor was also examined using similar methods. Binding between these proteins suggest that nuclear export of 11E7 is mediated by CRM1 binding to its leucine-rich nuclear export signal (NES).