User:Simoncaulton/Tax

Tax is a viral oncoprotein produced by the delta retrovirus human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1). Infection with this virus can cause a cancer known as adult t-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL), largely mediated by the tax protein.

Structure and function
Tax promotes transcription of viral and host genes. It associates with cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), a mammalian host protein that binds to the 21bp repeat on the long terminal repeat(LTR) region of the HTLV-1 DNA to activate viral DNA transcription. In addition to CREB, tax also interacts with a number of other proteins to activate the TLR, including CREB-binding protein and p300. Tax also induces the

The tax protein contains a zinc binding region essential for its transactivation properties. In addition, the protein requires ubiquitination, a post translational modification, for transactivation.